Oregon legislators have proved they're down with the kids by slipping the lyrics to Rick Astley's immortal Never Gonna Give You Up into otherwise deadly serious House of Representatives business.

The rickrolling-inspired vid was posted on 1 April, and went viral earlier this week. It was the brainchild of Portland Democrat Jefferson Smith, who conspired with fellow House members to insert Astley into a month-long legislative session.

He told Reuters: "It seemed non-time-consuming, funny and positive. Our country is facing some real partisan toxin. Any break from that seems not terrible."

Fellow Democrat Lew Frederick explained to AP: "You just never knew when someone was going to bring it up. When they did, there was always sort of a mild chuckle among the folks who knew what was going on."

Republican Vicki Berger provided the vital "ooh". She said: "We do really work hard. But that doesn't mean you can't have a little fun and say 'ooh' on the floor."

Vic Gilliam, another Republican conspirator, concluded: "It was silly, but it was a great thing to sit back and laugh at ourselves and let other people laugh as well." ®