Rickrolling is said to have began as a spin-off of an earlier prank called duckrolling . , which was when a link was supposed to lead to a picture or news story but would really link to an edited picture of a duck on wheels . Rickrolling is said to have begun as a variant of an earlier prank from the imageboard 4chan known as duckrolling , in which a link to somewhere ( such as a specific picture or news item ) would instead lead to a thread or site containing an edited picture of a duck with wheels .