#tumblr goncharov

[trifoliate-undergrowth]

Mixed feelings about the Goncharov meme (tumblr inventing a fake movie if you haven’t heard.) It’s been absolutely fascinating to watch multiple people simultaneously creating the fandom and lore for a fake movie, inventing the movie itself, inventing a history for it, creating overlapping and sometimes contradicting but more often weirdly collaborative narratives for what “happened” in the “movie.” but it also freaked me the fuck out at first when I couldn’t figure out what was happening and I’m sure it’s worse for people who regularly feel like reality is breaking even without an entire website collaborating to haze them. oh and that’s the other thing. I feel like this is all really mean-spirited. It’s to haze the new twitter refugees, isn’t it? I mean I’m sure that’s not the main motivation of most of the people, who are genuinely having fun with it now, but I’m sure it’s at least a factor in why it’s happening like this, right now. I saw that post a while back that was like “wouldn’t it be funny if we all pretended to be fans of a movie that doesn’t exist to confuse the new people” and now here we are, doing that. Can’t be a coincidence. And I just can’t get behind that. I don’t approve of hazing. and even if I was enough of an asshole that I didn’t care about new users, this is going to bother old users (like me lol) also. and just.... anyone who doesn’t have context, or hasn’t seen that particular post, or (like me) saw it but had forgotten about it... And again, I don’t think it’s fair to haze the twitter refugees either, even if you could target them specifically.

and it’s hard for me to know what response here is appropriate because I regularly feel confused by humor anyway. Like I often tend to feel like memes and jokes can be a tool to exclude people who don’t understand them. I have autism and memory issues so everything is confusing all the goddamn time and I don’t understand what some other people consider funny. Usually if I miss context for a meme, I’m a bit confused but then I can catch up, figure out the context and feel included. and it’s just.. part of how memes are. With this one, idk, the idea that excluding people and making it hard to figure out context was an intentional part of it all along infuriates me. I don’t think anyone should be made to feel like that on purpose. It’s not funny. It feels like a meme has been weaponized as psychological warfare.

And I’m conflicted because it’s fascinating to watch this happen. I will probably be reblogging posts just because I want to preserve and study them in a lab lol. But I hate the hazing ritual vibes of it, I hate the main part of the joke where people pretend it’s a real movie. Maybe I just have a really thin skin about this kind of thing, I know I’m biased here, but I don’t like that it’s happening right now. Feels like we’re all ganging up to punish the twitter refugees and I don’t like siding with bullies.

Goncharov is not a real movie, it was a meme created by tumblr users, about which I am extremely conflicted

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Goncharov coming third in tumblr's top 100 movies of 2023 is so damn funny. Imagine being a film studio exec who spent millions making some of the other 97 movies listed below it only to be beaten by a film that cost exactly zero dollars to make and doesn't exist

[hawkatana]

[turntaxesgayer]

Goncharov was special because not only did we establish canon, we created a whole fanon gay interpretation and proceded to ignore the (not even real) original in favour of it. And thats what tumblr is all about.

[ugli-ly]

if you think about it it's only fair that Character With No Canon Physical Description is declared sexiest man by popular vote. on the Critically Acclaimed Movie That Doesn't Fucking Exist website

[animentality]

Goncharov broke containment.

[iphyslitterator]

As of this writing, Goncharov has been added and removed from the Martin Scorsese filmography Wikipedia page 7 times.

[tom-bakers-scarf]

Spotted this in a second hand bookshop and the whiplash I felt was so strong that I think I’ve discovered another 12 stages of grief

[joycrispy]

Zepotha will never be Goncharov because when it comes down to it, tumblr culture is collaborative, while tiktok culture is merely iterative, and those are not the same thing.

[foervraengd]

Goncharov (1973)

Oh don’t mind me im just doing some cinematography art studies of my favourite Katya moments ~

[enigma-the-mysterious]

The reason Goncharov (1973) is such a hit is because it allows Tumblr to unironically participate in its national sport:

Lying

[trifoliate-undergrowth]

Gaslight

Gatekeep

GONCHAROV

[nicostiel]

#bye tumblr 2022 it’s been fun

[hussyknee]

i'm so confused rn, can you explain the goncharov thing?? i get off tumblr for five minutes

(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

Important PSA 1 (how to reduce harm to Tumblr's neurodivergents)

Important PSA 2 (reality affirmation, anti-bullying)

Important PSA 3 (why you should stop trying to vandalise legit information sites)

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

----

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

More trailers!

Trailer 1 (My favourite)

Trailer 2

Trailer 3

Trailer 4

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! ❤️

[jupiterslifelessmoons]

The reason Goncharov was fun and worked well is because Tumblr didn’t plan for it, we just “yes and” it, everyone went with it and added to it with no planning while TikTok people with Zepotha are trying to recreate that by deciding to start a trend and tell people this movie existed, there isn’t even much more than “you look like this character” and sometimes people saying it was actually them.

[weaver-z]

The "Zepotha" trend on tiktok makes me SICK as an indie slasher fan. Why did they choose the name "Zepotha?" Name one fucking indie slasher from the 80's that isn't called something like House of Guts. "Zepotha" would be the name of an arthouse horror from the 70's created by a giallo-obsessed Johnny-come-lately director from New Jersey. Zepotha would be brought up in every other "obscure horror recs" thread on reddit until it became a circlejerk meme to even mention it.

"Oh you sound so mad, you sound like you just want to gatekeep--" I DO! I'M GATEKEEPING! None of these people even like slashers! They can barely make it through Fear Street, and then they still make fun of effects that aren't Marvel-sweatshop-grade CGI! You expect them to be able to create a fictional slasher movie with the conviction that this site had when it created Goncharov? Get! Off! Of! My! Lawn!