(youβre not stupid. I posted this thinking it would amuse a handful of mutuals who all knew the context and that would be about it, so I didnβt think about providing any other explanation. I had no idea it would spread this far.)
Iβll start from the very beginning just to be thorough. so this is Alex Hirsch, creator and head writer of Gravity Falls, a show which had a big focus on mystery, conspiracies, codes and ciphers, etc. the whole plot is kicked off by one of the main characters finding a mysterious old journal in the woods, which detailed all kinds of weird and supernatural things, but then ended abruptly with the author saying they had to hide the journal because they were being watched. the central driving mystery of the show, therefore, was the question of who wrote the journal and what happened to them.
now, the thing about Gravity Falls is that, while it must be said that the writers werenβt always quite as sure of their plans as we tend to like to think they are, it is very much a fair play mystery, with legitimate clues to what was going on. but the writers were caught off guard by how quickly the show attracted a dedicated audience, including a lot of people outside the primary presumed demographic, who started solving the clues faster than expected. so some of the fans were able to correctly guess who the author was before it was revealed in the show, and the theory started spreading. this put the writers in something of a panic, because this was THE mystery that the whole story revolved around, with ΒΎ of the show building up to the dramatic reveal in the middle of season 2. they wanted it to be a mystery that could be figured out, sure, but they werenβt prepared for people to solve it so far in advance of when it was planned to be revealed, which would have really taken away from the big moment. they werenβt going to change the main story itself, but having been caught unaware by how much attention the fans were paying, they wanted to up the ante and make the mystery more complex to solve going forwardβbut first they needed to buy some time and throw the fandom off the scent for a little longer.
hence, Alexβs plan as described above. they whipped up a fake shot that appears to give away the identity of the author as being another character in the show, put it on a screen in the studio as if it was a real animation frame, took a picture of it, and βleakedβ it online. it was initially decided to be a hoax (albeit, I think, presumed to be a hoax originating from outside the production team), until Alex posted this tweet:
β¦before quickly deleting it (though not so quickly that it didnβt get seen, of course).
it worked well enough to distract most people for a while, and wasnβt revealed as a hoax until a year later, when an episode aired that definitively proved that the supposed screenshot could never have happened, at which point Alex owned up to the whole thing as seen in the tweet above. by then the episode with the real reveal wasnβt far off, and while people did still work it out ahead of time, it was more of an βOH MY GOD I KNEW IT!β moment than a βbooooooring, weβve known that for agesβ moment, which of course was what the writers wanted all along.
personally I find this a fascinating approach to dealing with the problem of spoilers, because it doesnβt affect the story itself at all; if you watch Gravity Falls todayβor if you were watching it when it aired without any significant contact with the fandomβyouβd never know about it. ultimately, the problem the writers were facing wasnβt that some people might guess the answer to the mysteryβthey never wanted to make it completely impossible to predictβso much as it was that they hadnβt designed the story to stand up to so many people working on the puzzle together, which resulted in a sort of total output of puzzle-solving ability that far outstripped the capability of any one solo human being. so their solution is something thatβs very much targeted toward delaying that group problem-solving, without actually affecting the experience of any individual person watching the show.
plus, itβs very in keeping with the overall tone of the show.
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