There was a vociferous but somehow under the radar outcry about this back in 2018 and an incredibly simple solution was widely suggested: demonetize the video.

However, the highly viewed video is a significant source of royalty revenue for Mr. Astley, which, as he well argued at the time in a series of tweets, is only just compensation for the way his image has been turned into a joke literally hundreds of millions of times now.

Mr. Astley implored YT not to bow to pressure and demonetize the video. YT famously replied “don’t worry, we’re never going to give you up, never going to let you down.”

If you're seeing ads on YouTube, you're doing it wrong.

Rick Roll is only effective on people using ad blockers

Not true

I give up, this has really let me down.

You aren't doing youtube correctly.

PC: firefox + ublock origin, freetube

Mobile: revanced, newpipe

I can't believe I'm about to suggest this, but use a YouTube short version since those don't have ads.

Such as: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SXHMnicI6Pg

Tenor had a good video guide of how to skip ads for short videos on YouTube with link changes. I used it to Rick Roll a friend once, not sure if it still works, though: https://media.tenor.com/x8v1oNUOmg4AAAAM

Don't click this link

I know theres a github page. I believe its shatterdisk? When i was in school they firewalled youtube. So i found alternatives to rick roll.

Where there is a rick roll There is a rick way

I don't understand why people have to watch those ads. It's one websearch that will save you a lot of time.

I use Mozilla for desktop and brave for Android to listen to videos while the screen is off.

I don’t mind adverts for free services but YouTube take the piss now.

And Amazon. Paying Prime members still have to watch ads.

dwXcQ

Yes but the billionaire got a little more billions, very important

Now playing Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

Wasn't there someone who bought youtube ads and had the ad be a rick roll?

Watch this vid for a good explanation on how to avoid the issue:
https://music.apple.com/us/music-video/never-gonna-give-you-up/1559900284

Just use a different site here

Cant you just use a thirdparty youtube ui url?