The McGucket Hoax

The original leaked image Alex posted on 4Chan

The McGucket Hoax is the name given to a fake screenshot from Gravity Falls of a young Old Man McGucket writing in Journal 3 that spread in 2013. It was believed to have been a leaked screenshot from an upcoming episode. However, after the premiere of "Society of the Blind Eye," it became known that the image was not only fake, but fabricated by series creator Alex Hirsch himself to fool fans.

Background

Throughout the first season of Gravity Falls, there had been several instances where the show hinted at the possibility of Grunkle Stan having a twin brother. Clues included things such as Stan's license plate reading "STNLYMBL" , the great amount of care he had for the Wax Stan figure that Mabel made in "Headhunters," the supposed (later confirmed) sighting of the twin brother in "The Time Traveler's Pig" and more.

While Alex Hirsch and the crew had hoped these clues would not be enough for fans to piece it together, by the middle of season 1, they had more or less figured it out and the theory of Stan having a twin brother began to spread within fan discussions on sites like Tumblr, forums and more as the most likely author of the journals. This was not good, as the whole end goal of the show had been discovered by fans too early and this risked jeopardizing the series' big reveal and payoff. So, rather than rewriting the show or altering their plans, Alex and his team decided to work out a counter narrative which they could leak out to have fans be thrown off the trail of the real author of the journals.

Close up of the image

The Leak

The original sketch of the fake screenshot was done by Alex himself. It was then given to Joe Pitt who drew it, and then colored in by Ian Worrel. The image was of a younger McGucket, with 6 fingers, using an ink and quill to write in Journal 3. The idea utilized Phil Rynda's design of McGucket having a permanent cast, to give the illusion that it had something to do with why he now had 5 fingers.

A timestamp and production code of a fake episode was then added onto the image to give it the illusion that it was real. The image was then thrown up onto a monitor in one of the editor bays and a photo was taken of it from an unusual angle to give it the illusion of a secretly taken image.

On April 9, 2013, Alex Hirsch went and posted the image to a thread discussing Gravity Falls on 4Chan's /co/ board, under the alias that he was a fan who had been on a tour of the Disney TVA offices and managed to snap this photo of a supposedly major spoiler from an upcoming episode that was accidentally left up in an empty room. The message he left was the following:

Alex's post on 4Chan that started the hoax

"Seriously don't look at this if you don't want spoilers but I took a tour of Disney and I got this picture of the editing office and I got a few pictures from season 2 episodes. This one is probably the most interesting. Again DONT click if you don't want spoilers"

To make the seem leak more believable, he included an actual still from the then yet to air episode "Gideon Rises," with the caption, "Heres another one its less spoilery but also blurry." As that episode was already known to be coming, fans would be more so inclined to believe the image to be real and in turn make people think the McGucket image was real too. This was also helped by the fact the leak happened in April 2013 and by that point, Gravity Falls had already been renewed for a 2nd season.

Alex let the image sit there for several hours, before then making and later deleting a tweet in which he expressed anger about the leak, to make it seem more real and as something that had taken even the crew by surprise. As expected, the trick worked and suddenly the fandom had shifted gears away from the Stan Twin theory, to now believing that the entire next season of the show had its big mystery leaked and that McGucket was the one who wrote the journals.

Hoax Revealed

Alex Hirsch, Matt Braly and Ian Worrel revealing the hoax at the 2014 Creative Talent Network Expo

The image became a hot topic amongst the fandom as to its validity. Some argued it was real, given it had come straight from the show's production offices, was posted to 4Chan and also due to Alex's deleted tweet and almost genuine seeming frustration being proof it was a leak. At the same time, others pointed out discrepancies in the whole way the leak happened, the production code not being that of any upcoming known episode, the two images looking like they had been taken back to back in the same room, implying that it didn't mean the room was empty and also as to why Alex would be so quick to deleting his tweet. Some believed it was too good to be true, as why would such a major scene be left open in an unsecured room on an editing screen while a tour was going on. Others though were sold on the possibility that the show had been spoiled.

The truth would not be known until the premiere of Society of the Blind Eye on October 27, 2014, which confirmed canonically that McGucket had not written the journals but was in fact an assistant of the author. Alex would then fully come clean about the image the following month at the 2014 Creative Talent Network Expo. During a Gravity Falls panel with Matt Braly and Ian Worrel, he revealed to the audience the image, as well as one taken of him pointing to it and confessed that he was behind it. He later would also tweet out the same image in which he posed next to the fake one, in turn letting the whole world know he was behind it and that it all was an elaborate hoax.

Legacy

The McGucket hoax is regarded by some to be one of the best tricks ever played on a fanbase by its creator. The fact Alex didn't even need to do the leak, but did so regardless, helped Gravity Falls become more regarded in terms of how it repaid its audience for their commitment to its mysteries. It was also significant in the fact that the crew did not decide to change the goals they had planned for the show and instead found a creative way to ensure fans would not be spoiled. They instead chose to throw them off to make the reveal more rewarding for the ones who believed it, avoiding the issues that could arise from last minute changes that would subvert expectations in a negative way.

The hoax was also a lesson for the crew, who learned just how capable the fandom was in terms of solving major mysteries. It also ensured fans would be more mindful of possible future leaks, as they very well could have also been fake ones by Alex or the crew, though nothing like this ever did happen again (although it started a trend of fans making fake parody images of the McGucket image). Fans also ended up being more cautious in terms of believing theories just in case they may not be 100% true either.

The Stan Twin theory would of course go on to be proven true in 2015, with the premiere of "Not What He Seems." Alex also managed to recover the original sketch he made of the hoax image while cleaning out his office as production on the show ended in 2016.

Trivia

• Although the leak worked in getting fans off the trail of Stan having a twin, there were many who didn't buy the image as legit.
• When decoded using the A1Z26 Cipher, the timestamp at the top of the image says ALX.
• The image led to many other fan made supposed leaked images and the whole thing becoming a meme.
• The image's episode code, 618G-123 is not that of a real episode as the most recent Gravity Falls episode to have a code start with 1 was Gideon Rises (618G-121).
• Following season 2, the coding changed to start with a 2 (618G-202, for example being the code of "Scary-oke").
• Had this been a real episode, it would have made it the 22nd episode of the first season and series overall.
• There's a common misconception that the image was leaked on Reddit rather than 4Chan. However, Alex has confirmed the image was only shared on 4Chan by him, implying it was posted to Reddit but by others as it began to spread.
• Prior to the image being leaked, there had been talk in the fandom on if McGucket wrote the journals. The image however made the belief all the more likely until Society of the Blind Eye.
• The Gravity Falls crew would bring up the story of the hoax and share their thoughts about it in 2018 for the Box Set documentary One Crazy Summer.
• The original full and uncropped images that Alex posted to 4Chan as well as his original posts on the /co/ board were refound in 2022.
• The hoax is referenced in The Book of Bill with Bill pranking Dipper by beaming fake images of Tyler Cutebiker, Waddles, and Gorney being the author of the journals in his dreams.

Gallery

Alex's image that confirmed the hoax

Alex's deleted tweet on the leak

A fan-made recreation of the image.

Leaked screenshot from "Gideon Rises" that Alex posted in the 4Chan post

Alex's sketch of the image

The McGucket Hoax

Video on the Hoax from the Box Set

Alex revealing the hoax at the 2014 Creative Talent Network Expo