RIP, Trololo Guy, Eduard Khil

[Ian David]

Trololo is a video of the nationally-honored Russian singer Eduard Khil (AKA Edward Khill, Edward Hill) performing the Soviet-era pop song “I am Glad, ‘cause I’m Finally Returning Back Home” (Russian: Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой . The video is often used as a bait-and-switch prank, in similar vein to the practice of Rickrolling.

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Khil’s Illness and Death

On May 28th, 2012, the world news site Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty[5] reported that Eduard Khil had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The following day, the Russian entertainment news site RT[11] published an article titled “Trololo man in critical health condition”, stating that Khil had suffered irreversible brain damage and was in a coma. The article went on to report that Khil may survive if he underwent immediate surgery, but doctors could not guarantee recovery. On June 4th, Khil died at a hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, one week after suffering from the stroke. The death was subsequently covered by various news sites including The Washington Post[13], Ria Novosti[14] and The Huffington Post.[15] The same day, a Reddit[16] post titled “Eduard Khil (‘Trololo Guy’) dies in St. Petersburg, aged 77” reached the front page, accumulating over 18,000 up votes in 11 hours.

More:
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trololo-russian-rickroll#fn7