Where next for Project Rickroll 101?

OK, we've had 3 weeks of this, and so far I don't think anyone's even close to getting it. There's only one thing we can do to liven this up...


... I call RICKROLL RACE!



Here's how it works. I've been starting to repeat myself over the last few classes, and frankly some of the phrases are easier to pass off in a classroom context than others. Clearly I need to up the ante, to find some more challenging ways of Rickrolling my classes.



Well, here's where I am so far. Phrases I've already used to Rickroll a class are boldfaced:



We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy


I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand


Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you


We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching, but you're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it


And if you ask me how I'm feeling
Don't tell me you're too blind to see


Never gonna give you up (repeat)


Never gonna give you up (repeat)


(Oooooooh, Give you up)(Oooooooh, Give you UP)
Never gonna give, never gonna give(Give you up)



Here's the deal: I will try, in the course of subsequent classes, to incorporate EVERY lyric of this song into a lecture, seminar or tutorial.


If I complete this before anyone calls me on it, I win.


If you find me out before I complete the song, you win. (Finding me out involves a student coming up to me after class, and saying, "I know who you are, Professor Rickroll!", or some other similar way of revealing I am rumbled.)


The game is afoot!

It's been a slow week

The recent run of poor weather has rather hampered the progress of the Project this week, as class after class succumbed to the snow and the icy roads. I had high hopes that the Friday lunchtime group would make it - I was planning to introduce them to comic metre, especially the anapaest. As any fule kno, the anapaest is a rhythm based on one or two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (di-DUM, or di-di-DUM). This results in verse structures like the one below:

di-DUM di-di-DUM di-di-DUM
di-DUM di-di-DUM di-di-DUM
di-DUM di-di-DUM
di-DUM di-di-DUM
di-DUM di-di-DUM di-di-DUM

or putting words to the rhythm, something like:

There ONCE was a MAN from NanTUCKET
...

That's right, it's a limerick! And what limerick do you think I planned to show them, as an example of modern English anapaests?

This one!

(check out the rest of the site by the way, some of the limericks which actually pay attention to things like rhythm and rhyme are both hilarious and extremely intelligent! It reminds me of one of my own pet projects I'll get round to one of these years, posting all the limericks and comic verse I've written about my subject area.)

Update part 2

Two more classes today, apart from the lecture - comic theatre (this a small translation class), and a seminar on skills.

In the comic theatre class I shared some banter with a friendly student. "Are you being sarcastic, Professor X_____?" she asked. I replied, "We've known each other for so long! How could you expect anything else!"

In the skills seminar, once again, I began with a game as a teaching tool. One group didn't like the task I'd set them, and when it came time to report, they said, "We actually did something a bit different here - we didn't like what you wanted us to do." So when asking the next group to report, I began by saying "You knew the game and you're gonna play it. What have you got for us?"

By the way, I see that a few blogs have picked up on me over the weekend, and a (very) modest amount of interest seems to have been raised about who and where I am. Let me assure you, I'd love to get rumbled in a class! Apart from anything else, at least it would prove that people listen to me when I teach! I've no classes tomorrow, so I'll post again, explaining how I plan to move this project to the next level.

Tuesday 3rd February update (part 1)

The second day of spring, as some would have it, though you wouldn't think it to look at the weather. I'm quite proud of the first of today's Rickrolls, which built naturally into one of my own pet theories as well as marking a very teachable moment, so I'm making today's update a two parter. I'll give you the first story in detail in this post, then tell the next two in a second post.

The first class was a lecture on myth, this time on the relationship between the role of men and the role of the gods. I wanted to make the point that gods make the rules and enforce them rigidly, while the men of myth break the rules or otherwise evade them in creative and cunning ways.

So I began by asking,

"Irish folks in the room, answer this question. Say I invite you to a party, and say it starts at 8pm. What time would you actually plan to arrive?"

The answers flew back: 9, 9.30, even 10pm.

"OK." I said. "Now let me tell you what I'd do, as an Englishman. I'd arrive at five to 8, walk twice round the block to run down the clock, and ring the doorbell at one minute past eight."

This is true. As an Englishman resident in Ireland [CLUE!], I often had embarrassing moments at parties in my early months in Dublin.

"Why do English people behave one way, and Irish the other? I believe that it's something to do with our respective political histories. Imagine it's back in the days of empire: I'm Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and you're my subjects. You know the rules, and so do I. But I have to enforce the rules, because I'm in charge, and have to set a good example, whereas you can dodge and evade and find loopholes as much as you like, because you want to feel you're outwitting a tyrannical ruler.

"The English had an empire, and therefore had a vested interest in following the rules, even simple ones like when to come to a party, as closely as possible. The Irish, however, resented being told what to do - who doesn't? - and to this day have built up an inherent resistance to authority which manifests itself in a desire to evade, twist, or outfox even the simplest of rules.

"And that's what the relationship between gods and men is like in myth - just like the English and the Irish! The cruel English with their capricious rules, and the cunning Irish bravely resisting and outfoxing them."

Apart from the Rickroll, I reckon it's a pretty interesting point in its own right. Whaddaya all think?

End of Week 2: still not busted!

1pm, the translation class which I set preparation for on Tuesday. We came to a section which included the phrase - no way of being delicate - for "fondling the balls". Finessing a possible awkward moment, I said, "You're too shy to say it. But inside we all know what's been going on."

2pm, a tutorial on mythology. Story of Atalanta comes up, a woman who challenged all her prospective husbands to a foot race, and then had her father put them to death when she outran them. What else to say but "She ran around and hurt them"?

I know the rules; but do they?

1pm, love poetry. Still on the love affair of Catullus and Lesbia, which began well but ended badly. I explained that in the earliest stages of the affair, Catullus would not know that Lesbia was going to "run around and hurt him".

3pm, same class on group work skills as Tuesday, this time taught to a different group of students. For variety, I passed over Tuesday's "play the game" gambit, this time starting the quiz by saying "You know the rules, and so do I." Surely SOMEONE is starting to catch on by now?

Week 2, and still no one is suspicious

12 noon, ancient mythological epic. Discussing the love stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses, I told them, "Ovid is no stranger to love."

1pm, comic theatre. There is a translation class coming up, and I was asked by a student how much translation she had to prepare for the next session. I said "A full commitment's what I'm thinking of, so how about down to line 180?"

4pm, skills class in effective groupwork. I began by dividing the class into teams and holding a short trivia quiz, in order to demonstrate a couple of basic points; I started the quiz by saying "We know the game and we're going to play it."

Day 2

(in case you're wondering about the hiatus, I only teach classes on three days of the week, and not all classes run every week)

1pm - Tutorial on love poetry. On introducting the poet we will be studying, told the class: "Catullus is no stranger to love"

3pm - A plenary seminar in research skills. I set the midterm assignment, and pointed out the penalties for late submission, before dismissing them summarily: "But you know the rules, and so do I!"

And So It Begins

12 noon - Lecture on ancient mythological epic. Told the class they were lucky to have all the handouts I had prepared for them - "you wouldn't get this from any other guy!"

1pm - Class on comic theatre. Explaining the mechanics of humour, I referenced a Simpsons episode which relies on the audience's being aware that the convention of comedy is to restore the status quo by the end of the episode. I explained that the authors were exploiting our knowledge of comic plot structure: "They know the rules, and so do we!"

The Rickroll 101 project

The project is simple: I'm a lecturer in liberal arts teaching adults literature on a college programme, and my object is to Rickroll every lecture and tutorial class I teach over the course of this semester. Your standard Rickroll would, of course, be to offer some poor dupe a misleading link which, when clicked, will redirect him to a video of Rick Astley's classic 80s hit Never Gonna Give You Up. For a man of letters, however, that kind of trickery isn't subtle enough. Plus, I don't want to be unethical and waste actual teaching time playing pranks on the students - this is only a game, and their education of course comes first. So what I intend to do is to slip a phrase, or lyric, from the song into every one of my classes, and use this blog to record the convoluted ploys I use to work Rick's magic into my students' lives.

How long will it take them to rumble me? Let's find out!