Pokimane in tears after being baited by hilarious ‘Rickroll’ self-defense TikTok

Michael Gwilliam
Pokimane rickrolled during Twitch stream

The year may be 2021, but some people are still living like it’s 2008, as Twitch icon Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys was hilariously Rickrolled during an April 24 stream.

Rickrolling is one of the most famous internet pranks of all time and despite being over ten years old, it remains amusingly culturally relevant to this day, though perhaps in a bit of an ironic way.

As such, whenever someone is Rickrolled in this day and age, it’s a bit of a groaner, but for Twitch star Pokimane, the meme prank was enough to make her tear up.

During her Saturday broadcast, the streamer was playing Valorant when a viewer asked her to check out a TikTok about self-defense.

The suggestion piqued Anys’ interest and decided to grant the viewer their request by loading up the video.

Right off the bat, the video began with a man explaining that he would be teaching “the deadliest self-defense move known to man.”

Clearly interested in what this deadly move could be, the Canadian continued watching, and the instructor hyped the trick up, emphasizing that it was “only for life or death situations.”

After some brief instructions about how to properly make a fist in both hands, the man told viewers to move their clenched hands back and forth, which Poki naively imitated.

Without warning, the video then transitioned to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” and Pokimane had been successfully Rickrolled in 2021. Not only that, but she was already dancing along to it thanks to the instructions.

“There’s no way!” she gasped and buried her head in her hands. “There’s literally no way! Did I really just get Rickrolled through a TikTok in 2021? What the f**k?”

While she was a bit shocked by the prank, the streamer was still impressed, especially at how it was presented. As such, she decided to post her reaction on Twitter.

“Everyone NEEDS to learn this self-defense trick, it blew my mind,” she captioned her tweet with a series of emojis.

The feedback from other streamers and fans was gold. TimTheTatman simply replied by saying what everyone else was thinking: “Rickrolled in 2021 LOL.”

Meanwhile, NICKMERCS just responded with seven laughing emojis.

For her part, Pokimane was a good sport about the whole thing and it’s nice to see such a classic internet meme continue to claim unsuspecting victims all these years later.

About The Author

Michael Gwilliam is a senior writer at Dexerto based in Ontario, Canada. He specializes in Overwatch, Smash, influencers, and Twitch culture. Gwilliam has written for sites across Canada including the Toronto Sun. You can contact him at michael.gwilliam@dexerto.com or on Twitter @TheGwilliam