Those screenshots of Neil Gaiman begging people not to harrass him are so uncomfortable. He's clearly not enjoying it and clinging to patience by the skin of his teeth. Gotta say, this whole thing put paid to the illusion that this site's grown up some.

For my next trick, I will make a timeline of the Goncharov Tumblr wank. Not the fake discourse LARPing, the real classic Tumblr Bullshit ft. self-inflicted queerbaiting, Soviet stanning, self-congratulatory posts about how good and inclusive we are unlike Twitter or pre-Porn Ban Tumblr, neurodivergent people being like we're what now???, mixed messages about what to tag, people giving up and tagging everything "#unreality", psychotic people even more confused now, people who didn't need the tags in the first place yelling about being condescended to, "Trust Me I Have A Psychology Degree", people who logged in on Day 2 being like Donald Glover if the pizza box also blew up in his face and tried to eat him, people fleeing to Twitter because their dashes had become unusuable, Gonchposters getting way to many notes and freaking out after being contacted by BuzzFeed, "are y'all seriously going to romanticise Russia in the middle of the Ukraine War?" "Fuck you, Goncharov is Estonian!" "Wtf is an Estonian?", indignant new Tumblr users wanting to know why people can't just blacklist "Goncharov" and curate their own online experience like they've been told to do, Tumblr users trying to explain that a functional filtering system was a myth this whole time and also people can't blacklist when they don't know wtf it is, "Hey, have we always had this many Tankies?", Where Have All The Patronymics Gone, Neil Gaiman memes, everybody's parasocial relationship with Lynda Carter getting worse, Teen Vogue Thinkpiece: Did People Of Colour Not Exist In 1973?, Wikipedia editors asking Tumblr to please stop trying to vandalize legitimate information sites, covid truthers and Tankies getting riled up about Wikipedia being called a legit information site, "WHY AREN'T YOU TAGGING THIS SHIT UNREALITY??" "Stfu that's not even what the unreality tag is for!", Calling Goncharov Gaslighting Is Ableist Actually, covid truthers maintaining that Goncharov isn't disinformation because that's what the govt does, Tankies agreeing, SCORCESE ADMITTED IT! IT'S NOT DISINFORMATION NOW!, "No wait it's not real!" "It's not??" "Well, Francesca Scorcese is real–" "–someone hallucinated Francesca Scorcese–??", #meme-is-real-movie-is-fake "oh okay see? That works", #factual-information-about-a-fake-movie-we're-doing-for-a-joke "oh god no", "I see your psychotic person who needs tags and raise you my psychotic person who's triggered by them!", "SEE? IT'S ALL PERFORMATIVE BULLSHIT!" "OMG JUST SAY YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT DISABLED PEOPLE AND GO!", "Hold up there's more than 30k notes on this post now. Where's our movie, bitch?" "It's been TWO DAYS" "Yeah and? Ya wanna sleep with the fishes?", "STOP HARRASSING NEIL GAIMAN!", #factual-information-about-a-fake-movie-we're-doing-for-a-joke, "JUST TAG IT UNREALITY!" I hate this hellsiteasdfghjkhjhhjjjjj

This is so funny 💀💀 "hospice care"

Hey, just in case people who already have been having a bad time with this meme are retriggered by Francesca Scorcese's TikTok – Goncharov is fake. It doesn't exist. [Edited for further clarity] That is really Martin Scorsese's daughter, that's her real TikTok account, and presumably that is really her father in the chat screenshot she posted. Francesca saw the piece in the NY Times talking about how Tumblr made up a fake movie, sent her Dad the link and asked "Did you see this?" Martin joked back "yes I made that movie years ago." That's all it was, Martin Scorsese himself playing along with our silliness.

PLEASE reblog this and DO NOT TAG IT UNREALITY. "Unreality" is for posts that are keeping up the bit, but info posts, reality-affirming posts and ones talking about the meme as a meme are solidly real. We really haven't been doing a good enough job tagging this properly and protecting neurodivergent people from being gaslit and traumatized. I've seen way too many people saying they nearly had a breakdown because of being lied to. We never meant to hurt you, and I'm so sorry people were jackasses when you wanted to know the truth.

Edit: I love everybody reblogging this, but a handful of idiots have been clowning on this post so here's an explainer about how site-wide disinformation can trigger psychosis. Please go in the replies and notes, they have a lot of interesting insights, by everyone from non-psychotic autistic people with gaslighting trauma to DID systems. You can go through the notes on this post as well.

There's absolutely no reason to be ashamed of loving and enjoying this meme, or to feel bad about not tagging things properly when you didn't know how. And PLEASE don't harass, dogpile or shame people for failing to tag properly or choosing not to. You're just giving people anxiety and policing them. Do what you can how you can, be kind, and don't tell other people their business. That is more than enough.❤️

I'm fucking dying 💀💀

BuzzFeed: Tumblr Is Obsessed With A 1973 Scorsese Movie That Doesn’t Exist

(Edits closed as of 28 Nov.)

Lmaoooo

Nah I getchu. So this post has been circulating for like two years:

Link to post.

But yesterday, it had inspired someone to do this:

Link to post.

Next thing I knew there were fake Letterboxed reviews.

Goncharov moodboards. Really good ones.

Link to post.

Meta analysis. So many fake meta essays. Disturbingly good ones. And of course the memes. (Edit: HAVE I SAID THIS SHIT IS DISTURBING)

As you can see, the myth just started to grow, characters and ships and tropes being added one after the other, almost bizzarely without contradiction, until there was enough of shape to the whole thing for people to start posting fanfic about it on AO3. "No beta we die like ice-pick Joe" is already a tag.

Link to post.

It was hilarious in the beginning, but the way it's developed within less than a day, kind of like it's being willed into existence, is freaking me out a bit. We're toying with powers beyond our comprehension. 😂😂😂

Link to post.

Of course, there could be an ulterior motive as well.

Link to post (tags mine).

Edit: guys, please tag these posts "unreality" so people with disassociation issues can filter them out (not this one, this is an explainer). <3

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Edit 2: Aparently the boots in the original post are actually referring to a movie called Gomorrah that came out in 2008, directed by Mateo Garrone, based on the Scampia Feud. And other people had also been making posts about the fake movie for a while before the poster took off.

found by @thepotch

Edit 3: Explainer: why did those boots have this movie on them anyway?

Edit 4: Alt text added to all images courtesy of @valentineish ❤️

Edit 5: Turns out tumblr has done this kind of thing before. Nine years in this hell place and I had to have "Squiddles" and penis smp explained in the replies.

Edit 6: This post collects the Lore so far.

Edit 7: Lynda Carter (real one)/ earns more/ Tumblr cred.

Edit 8: Holy shit y'all we have the theme music. With sheet music. And it's on Spotify!

Edit 9: THERE IS A TRAILER WITH THE THEME MUSIC

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I made this post 18 hours after the movie poster went up. Closed edits 27 hours after first posting. So all of the above happened within 45 hours of the movie poster going up.

Edit 10: Google document live-compiling all the lore so far (Day 3)

Edit 11: Masterpost of Goncharov soundtracks (Day 3)

Edit 12: Entertainment news articles covering the Gonch-posting (real) (Contd from yday)

Edit 13: The music from the masterpost all compiled into a 31-minute original score with video edits on YouTube (edit: unfortunately taken down)

Edit 14: Staff's Goncharov art showcase for Tumblr Tuesday

As of closing on Day 3 there are 371 works in the AO3 tag.

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Updating with Day 3 shenanigans I missed yesterday:

Edit 15: Goncharov TV Tropes page

Edit 16: Ethics of Gonchposting

Edit 17: Character lore from beezlebub whose poster they originated from

Edit 18: What we know about/ Director Matteo JWHJ0715 (#unreality)

Edit 19: Link to post with screenshotted and described NYT article (scroll down) and this golden exerpt from BuzzFeed: 💀

(alt text included)

End of Day 4 there are now 485 works in the Goncharov tag on AO3

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Didn't get to update this on Day 5, so these are the Day 5 doings:

More trailers!

I also just found out about the Goncharov Game Jam.

It appears this opened a day after after the meme took off.

Goncharov was first entered into Wikipedia between Day 4 and 5 (attempts to vandalise it with fake info don't count, incidentally – please knock that shit off) under List of Internet Phenomena. This was then expanded into its own Wikipedia page at the end of Day 5 because, according to the talk history: "the topic now meets the notability threshold for its own artice due to significant coverage in The New York Times and other sources cited." We're on Wikipedia, people!

And then we made The Guardian half a day later. So while the meme is definitely dying down to embers by now, it still stays winning.

YouTube channels with episodes on the meme:

InformOverlord (4:30)

Lessons in Meme Culture (2:43)

End of Day of 5 there were 511 works on AO3, and End of Day 6 (today) there are 556.

--

🚨BREAKING 🚨 from Martin Scorsese's daughter's TikTok (real actual)

tw: unreality:

We did it you guys!

Clarification: Francesca Scorcese asked her Dad about the meme and Martin played along. Please reblog this PSA to help Tumblr people with psychosis. Thanks.

Final edit: Day 8. Media reactions to Scorcese's TikTok (everyone from Forbes to Vulture). That one Tumblr user who said they'd do a screenplay if their post got notes has promised to shoot a single scene, but please don't be dicks just because you reblogged it; leave them alone until they get around to it themselves. As of end of Day 8 there are 609 works in the AO3 tag. I love all you lunatics. Peace! ❤️