Russian singer Eduard Khil, who won over an Internet fan base with an accidentally hilarious video, died today in Russia at age 77, Mashable reports. He had suffered a stroke in April that left him with severe brain damage. His 1976 video, a strolling, smiling, suave performance of "I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home," will no doubt live on as an Internet meme. In it, Khil substitutes many words censored by the Soviet government with "trololo."
Often parodied, the video has inspired a mobile app and many bait-and-switch pranks resembling the Rickroll meme. Reddit, which played a big role in popularizing the video in 2010, honored Khil with a thread about his death: “It is truly a weird world where people around the world mourn the passing of a Soviet era singer who faded into obscurity over 40 years ago until one of his songs was rediscovered and shared globally,” wrote one Redditor. “Ripley wouldn’t believe it and Asimov couldn’t have written it.” (More viral video stories.)
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