The McGucket Hoax 

Oh wow...this video is getting a bit of attention again. Nice to see this little footnote in GF history is still remembered. If you're interested, I discovered that there was another image posted alongside the McGucket leak which you can look at here: twitter.com/forever_gf618/status/1491262289835851777

The fact that not only did he fake the leak, that he knew to delete it, as if it had been taken down... That's amazing.

Oh my god, that was a very smart move by Alex.

Also imagine be the one theorist who has caused this whole thing lol

This is missing an important aspect of the story. After the fake leak was posted, Alex posted a very angry tweet about how someone leaked and "ruined" his story, left it up for like 10 minutes and then removed it and refused to ever acknowledge it again, at least not until it was proven to be a fake. That's the whole reason I was fooled in the first place. Alex Hirsch is a legend.

I’m so glad they created this hoax instead of nixing Stanford. So much more creative & hilarious.

And exactly those things were Alex’s punishments for fandom’s sins XD

The fact that Alex put this much time into making sure that his fandom was constantly being engaged is outstandingly beautiful. He cared about the attention of his viewers, the show itself and his fans' theories.

I remember the morning after the "leak" broke. In addition, there was a deleted tweet of Alex saying something like "I'm so mad right now", and there was also another "hallway" pic that was an actual shot from "Gideon Rises", adding more "evidence" that the leak was legit. It was INSANE.

I remember how crazy this was. Seeing that screenshot and the debates over if it was fake. I think people already had McGucket in their crosshairs as a potential author, but this just added fuel to the fire, while also making some believe it couldn't be real. But then again, the Stan Twin Theory was interesting, but most of its evidence was circumstantial. I mean, if it hadn't been a twin, we would have written most of it off as animation weirdness. Then Society of the Blind Eye was announced, and advertised as revealing the author, with a heavy focus on McGucket.... Then the episode came out and it wasn't him. We all just accepted the screenshot was fake. Not a surprise, it seemed a little too perfect, some random leaked screenshot... Then Alex posted a tweet. It read: 1) Make Hoax 2) Upload to 4chan 3) Post Angry Tweet about it. 4) Delete Tweet 5) Let Internet do the rest. With a photo of Alex standing beside the Hoax Screenshot, just outside the original shot.... It was like being slapped in the face. We lost out minds. We were shellshocked... And we couldn't have respected him more for it. Seriously, it was one of the greatest fandom moments in history, and it certainly threw us off the trail. Enough so that the actual reveal of The Author still felt brilliant.

This whole thing was proof that Alex is actually Bill

This makes me think of The Empire Strikes Back having the fake leak that Obi-Wan killed Luke Skywalker’s father instead of Darth Vader being Luke’s father

God I love How Alex hirsch interacts with his audience, to go to so much effort to protect and keep the mystery alive, it just makes the show feel more alive

The one dislike is from Ford who's still miffed that someone might've tried to take credit for his work

I like that they didn't change the narrative, instead they put in red herrings to throw people off the scent. Like a proper mystery, it's only good if you can actually figure it out and the reveal isn't fun if it's made for the sake of a GOTCHA!

I was wondering if mcgucket was hiding some secret then I was like "nah he's a little cuckoo" then I thought about it again and started wondering if he made the portal just like when he made the gobblewonker

The fact that they went through all that effort to keep this a secret is why the show is so good... because they actually put effort into it. Alex and his team were/are a bunch of madlads.

Alex Hirsch is genuinely one of the coolest humans on the planet. Who puts that much effort into making their own “leak?”

The fact Alex went out of his way to make this just shows how much he cares about his show

OMG I REMEMBER THIS

Alex is a madman and that’s why we love him. The Blind Eye episode caught us in for a bigger loop as well.

Alex: *Here's a little lesson in trickery*

I remember believing the “leak” for about 20 minutes before i decided it was too perfect a coincidence to be an accident and it actually solidified my belief in the theory It felt amazing when the society of the blind eye finally came out

Sadly, I became a huge fan AFTER the show ended, you’ve got to appreciate the lengths the crew went to in order to keep spoilers like this from happening

Dipper is like the embodiment of the Gravity Falls Fandom, trying to theorize who made the journal before the big reveal and Alex is just like bill cipher, tricking everyone

Oh my god I remember seeing this and believing it. I can’t believe they actually did it themselves I love the crew of this show so much

Alex Hirsch is the only person in history that can truly say “I am four parallel universes ahead of you”

And this right here is why gravity falls is such a legendary series and why Alex hirsch deserves every bit of praise he gets for it. What other show made for kids mind you would go to such lengths to throw people off track

This in another reason why Alex is an amazing person Who would do all of this work just to throw his fans off to avoid the fans discovering the future of his show’s plot? Alex would.

vailskibum94 really had Alex Hirsch worried.

they messed with the fandom rather than messing with the lore

You sly dog... Well played. I ain't even mad. More TV show writers should put forth this sort of effort in their narratives. It shows serious creativity and dedication to the craft.

That's the thing I love about Alex he knows how to maintain the pace of the show by letting the fanbase fiddling themselves with theories and mysteries (basically what Gravity Falls is)

Huh, I must of been under a rock when this was happening but in saying so I didn't exactly dwell deep into the fandom like that!

I cried when mcGucket was a very important character. I literally just broke down. Because I know I'm gonna be expecting something big coming from him. Like I knew right from the start that he is very wise and whatnot. Then I broke down when I saw that scene.

I wish i was there when it'd happened. I would've exploded with confusion.

The fact that they've been actually keeping up with so much of what the fans were talking about the show on the Internet while it was in production and the fact that they put in so much effort to even act on it shows how much passion went into the creation of Gravity Falls

This is a counterintelligence move straight out of the CIA's platbook, and it was done on the fly by a cartoon show creator. Freaking wild.

I love when fans are punished for solving a mystery or big reveal early! And this wasn't like with the identity of the Arkham Knight or Tobey and Andrew's involvement in NWH where the creators just lie or refused to comment! This was a legit hoax!🤣

Alex Hirsch is a genius, with his idea to post it, keep it on for a short time, then delete it, while also trying to bury it as well. That’s something Ford would do, 100%.

To this day this is the most clever thing a creator has every done to collectively troll the entire fanbase

I am happy that they did this instead of rewriting the story

this was GENIUS writing. Both in the series and the real world

They were so genius for doing this, keeping the theory makers confused 😂

The amount of effort they do just so people won’t correctly guess who wrote the journal is amazing

Dang, that's dedication. They actually did a whole psy ops campaign to secure their big reveal.

The fans: "It was his twin brother all along!! That was the big twist we've been waiting for!!!" "Seriously I predicted that like a year ago"

i love how they used the same location in the book of bill "fake authors" page

god I love the layers to this shows' theories, I remember watching theory vids putting together both the ford and mcguckett theories, and switching between believing both lol

fighting theories with theories, fucking legendary

This is great because other shows would change the story to try and be surprising like game of thrones where in this case they just sabotage the fans in the best way possible

Even Dipper was thinking the same thing everyone on Tumblr was thinking

Imagine the one person who had made the theory way back when now, knowing that this whole conspiracy was made because of him.

Alex really pulled a Bill Cipher there that’s for sure

I remember when that drawing was leaked, and I didn't know what to think bc it looked so official but wrote it off as fanart

I still remember fords reveal had me going actually insane. still one of if not the coolest reveals to date for me.

Reminds me of how there were multiple scenes made for “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”, in order to keep the animators from knowing the truth.

Alex: I'm going to do what is called a pro gamer move

The fact that this man is more dedicated to his dumb ideas proves that most companies are too stupid to see the fun in dumb humor.

Got my husband to watch for the first time recently. He never even saw the twin twist coming, and he was theorizing the whole way through. Funny, though, he did think Mcgucket would be important, possibly the author, but he kept saying he thought Stan wrote the journals. Whole time, I'm screaming in my head... "Welllllll, Stanford Pines DID write the journals, but he's not who you think he is"

That type of dedication to the protection of one’s story is what I strive for. He pulled a frickin Kojima on em

crazy this brought memories back that i had long forgotten i used to watch theory videos on Gravity Falls because i was literally obsessed with it i’m happy i got back into the show because it’s aged well and is still amazing

I love how in the scene where Dipper goes "Old Man McGucket WROTE THE JOURNALS?", it says "Not likely" on his photograph. Subtle troll 😂

I remember back in the day when I was rewatching the show with some friends who had never seen it, I actually recreated this for them right before we got to the episode where Mcgucket's past was revealed. I had been pointing out various secrets and clues throughout the show already so my pointing out a series of fake clues and such to make them think it was him all along didn't stand out, and they actually loved that I had fooled them like that to recreate the experience of watching the show. Cause yea that's the real magical thing about gravity falls. It's a great show on its own merits of course. But it was an *experience* to watch it live. Even if you weren't hardcore into codebreaking and theories, there was still a real community based around putting together clues and discussing the plausibility of other theories and whatnot. Now that the show is over you can't get that since you can just watch all the episodes and learn everything now but man was it a trip to experience that in real time.

I remember this from when the show was still going on... Vailskibum was really the one who helped this theory spread throughout he fandom. I miss it a lot, great memories.

Wait, they were the ones to make that fake leak? I thought it was some random fan that was able to replicate the show's artstyle and did a fake leak for the fun of it.

Thank you so much for posting these commentaries!! Ive been enjoying them over the past few days loads :))

Who puts forth that kinda effort for such a little thing? Someone who truly cares about their narrative and story, ya know the hallmark of a good writer

THIS is how you respond to your fans figuring out the twist. Don’t change the story, but feed them false information.

This is why Gravity Falls is too perfect for Disney

This is frickin' amazing. I only became aware of this hoax recently, and am so happy Gravity Falls is a gift that keeps on giving after all those years.

what a genius plan honestly.

He gaslit an entire fandom

Alex is amazing. I love the fact that he used the cleverness of the fans against them and made them analyze over a "leak" image to throw them off the scent of the twin brother.

We've Been Tricked, We've Been Fooled and We've Been, Quite Possibly, Bamboozled

Never thought id be sourcing this video for a college paper but here we are Thank you for uploading these, you are a lifesaver

The funniest part is that, while mcgucket WASNT the author, he probably had the closest connection to the journals other than Ford & Bill

Imagine being the person that made that post then seeing you where right all along. That would have been a great “I told you so!” moment.

Worked on me. I noticed details like the broken swing and the kid in the back reading the book conspicuously covering his face and could tell there was someone else in Stan's life but I was completely thrown off the scent of him being the author as well.

God the amount of thought and effort for Alex to do this is incredible!

I like that level of dedication. Back when I was creating stuff, I always wanted to lead false breadcrumbs to keep the readers off the scent.

Can’t believe I missed this when it happened, I miss all the cool things! :(

Those guys have a Scott cawthon level of trolling their fanbase.

This shows how much work Alex harsh did on,gravity falls. Any other cartoon would just brush it off and not listen to,it

Very good cover up of a leaked script

That’s one of the most brilliant and simultaneously hilarious things for any creator to ever do ever

I REMEMBER THAT OMGGGG!! I just remembered lol

It was Vailskibum94 by the way. And I dont know but I think he was also the one who pioneered those Gravity Falls theory videos where it was just unlicensed versions of the GF theme playing over pixelated JPGs from the show, with text overlaying it which talked about the theory in question 0:22 HOLY SHIT I FORGOT ABOUT THIS. I am telling you man, the hijinks are real

I REMEMBER THIS! Man I was just thinking about this “leak” when rewatching gravity falls this weekend. I remembered when this first happend and I thought about how art was so good, made me wonder if someone on the team made that on purpose to throw fans off. I look it up and boom, apparently I was right. It’s so cool that they did all of this for the fans back then.

Lmao, i can't believe they went through this much effort. Fucking legends

It's funny how they developed an elaborate ruse to throw people off the truth but like, fans have TONS of theories right? At least some of them have to be right.

They work so hard to keep the suspense from us. Thank for saving us from the spoilers guys

This is an incredibly genius move that I haven’t seen anyone else do, especially now where leaks for shows and movies are so prevalent on the internet

i need an r rated gravity falls

See Rian this is how you subvert expectations. You fuck with the fans BEFORE the movie and then go with what they want and their minds will be blown away.

Imagine if someone actually made a counter-theory about how perfectly on focus the picture is, and if so why didn't the uploader took a video instead.

I'm now just realizing right now that Dipper is 12 years old and sounds like he's in his 20s.

goes to show how skilled Alex was and how much he knew his audience

The unseen battle between the fans and creators.

I think McGucket is the perfect example of a red herring character that had more layers than just being a red herring. That’s what’s great about gravity falls in general, is that the mystery of the characters is only there to amplify them and not be their sole personality trait