Pokémon fans the world over are celebrating Bidoof Day today, and that includes a special announcement on the franchise’s YouTube channel that quickly turns into a Bidoof-centric parody of Rick Astley’s most famous pop jingle. Although it isn’t nearly as popular as it was in the early Internet, the art of Rickrolling is still a treasured part of meme culture. Posting about important news or a desired trailer only to link to the music video for Never Gonna Give You Up fooled many a message board user a decade and a half ago.
The Pokémon Company has offered a unique twist on the concept as part of their Bidoof Day celebrations, which stretch across all forms of Pokémon media. Fans can log into the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online in order to receive a free Bidoof coin, deck box, and card sleeves. The Pokémon Twitch is airing several episodes of the anime where Ash and his friends ran into the friendly rodent on their adventures. Players of Pokémon GO will see increased spawn rates for Bidoof wherever they go throughout the day, and the Pokémon Center online store has hats, shirts and street signs all themed around the creature.
As for the video announcement, the official Pokémon YouTube posted an altered Rickroll with lyrics and visuals all tied into Bidoof for the special day. Scenes of Bidoof in various Pokémon games and anime episodes appear alongside special clips of Bidoof dancing in the same style and Rick Astley from the ’80s music video. The lyrics of the song have also changed, with specific phrases encouraging trainers to let Bidoof use moves other than Cut and praising Bidoof as a friend despite its inability to stand up on its own from time to time.
The announcement of Bidoof Day earlier this week left many Pokémon fans confused initially, and some even considered Pokémon more worthy of this honor. However, this intricate Rickroll parody proves that The Pokémon Company is in on the joke. Even so, it’s likely that there’s an ulterior motive to celebrating this often-overlooked monster that was previously most useful as an HM toolkit. With the remakes of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl soon on the way, The Pokémon Company may want fans to recall the fond times they had with the fourth generation of games, and no Pokémon would spread the good word faster than a joke creature like Bidoof.
Even with a new holiday based around it, it’s fair to say that Bidoof and its evolved form Bibarel are not the most popular of Pokémon. Bidoof doesn’t have a competitive edge in battles and it can’t match the cuteness of dozens of its fellow Pocket Monsters. What Bidoof does have is a memorable face, a pair of buck teeth, and now an amazing theme song to back it up on any further adventures. When players head back to Sinnoh later this year, they’ll likely have a good time remembering today’s Bidoof Day celebrations when they run into their first of many tiny beaver buddies in the wild.
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