The Yorkshire singer's most unlikely performance came more than an hour into the annual American institution, which has a television audience of millions.  Dressed in a black winter coat and gloves, Astley ran to the front of the Cartoon Network float to sing – or at least lip-synch – his most famous track next to a chorus of cheering children and a huge horned soft toy.  His performance marks the pinnacle of Rickrolling, the internet meme which involves tricking people into watching clips of Never Gonna Give You Up by leading them to believe they are clicking on something more enticing.  The stunt has single-handedly revived the pop singer's career – the video of his 1987 classic has been viewed more than 20 million times on YouTube – but Astley has until now been reluctant to exploit his unexpected popularity with a new generation.  He declined to collect his Best Act Ever gong at the MTV Europe Music Awards in person earlier this month, which he received after a groundswell of votes from his army of internet fans.  The Thanksgiving parade was the first time Astley has performed his own Rickroll, and may have been the most widely-seen Rickroll ever, thanks to the NBC cameras which filmed the event.  Within minutes word had spread across the internet through websites such as Twitter, and fans were quick to toast the singer's good humour and Cartoon Network's success in arranging the stunt.  "The fact that Rick Astley himself actually showed up makes this pretty much the most awesome thing ever," wrote one user of the Digg social bookmarking site.  "World: 0, Internet: 1," commented another.
The ultimate Rickroll, or the death knell of a internet fad that has long   ceased to amuse? Rick Astley was the surprise star of the Macy's   Thanksgiving Day parade in New York, emerging from the back of a float to   sing his 1980s hit Never Gonna Give You Up.