Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Welcome brothers and sister to this week's meeting of the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel.
The Secret society dedicated to discovering, decoding, and protecting the secrets of Gravity
Falls. I am this chapters founder and it's duly appointed High Exalted Big Fish, Douglas
MacKrell. As always, if you would like to see the minutes of our last meeting click
the red link on your screen right now. And now for this week's order of business: The
mystery of Gideon Gleeful.
Another character I get many requests to talk about is Gideon Gleeful. That little power
hungry sociopath is a favorite for a lot of people and it's easy to see why - funny, fresh,
and highly original, you seldom see such highly engaging adversaries. In one of our previous
meetings, I talked about a popular theory about Gideon Gleeful and Larry Hal Larrimore
- his possible inspiration. If you're new to our meetings, or would just like to rewatch
this video to catch up on this theory, click the red link on your screen right now.
So now that we know who and what Gideon is based on, let's focus on the Gleeful family.
Gideon is the only child of Bud and the as of yet unnamed Mrs Gleeful. Though Gideon
is indirectly based on child preachers like Larry Hal Larrimore, his father Bud is actually
based on a real person. The owner and frontman of the Melbourne Florida based used used car
dealership, Family Auto Mart.
Alex Hirsch saw one of Family Auto Mart's infamous commercials during a trip to Orlando
one summer, and it stuck with him to this very day. He even remembered the song from
the commercial: "If you want a deal thats great, call 2420328! Faaamily Auto Mart! I'll
see ya here!"
With used car dealer Bud's bubbly character in place, Mrs. Gleeful is a little more mysterious.
We've only seen her a handful of times in only two of the episodes so far, but she's
a quiet shell shocked woman with gray and white streaked hair who seems obsessed with
vacuuming. The Gleefuls have always had the strongest ties to Twin Peaks references, and
as such Mrs Gleeful seems to mirror the similarly shellshocked and drape obsessed character,
Nadine Hurley. So much so that I wouldn't be surprised if we discover in the second
season that, much like Nadine, Mrs Gleeful also has freakish super strength.
The Gleeful's connection to the Hurleys deepens when you realize that Bud and Mrs Gleeful
also seem trapped in a loveless relationship. We're given a quick clue about this when Bud
gives a quick legal disclaimer at the end of the Tent of Telepathy's TV commercial in
The Hand That Rocks the Mabel. At the very end, Bud confesses: "Carla, I loved you but
I never had the guts to say it." In Twin Peaks, Big Ed Hurley is similarly trapped like Bud
in his marriage out of obligation - despite his true love for Norma Jennings.
In this case, it seems like Gideon holds the family together through powerplays. We know
the majority of the Gleeful's income stems from Gideon's stage persona and that seems
more than enough to keep Bud in line. Though we still don't know what direct sway Gideon
has over his mother, it may be mystical or occult in origin. Odds are though, that Gideon
forces the family to stay together - not only so he can be waited on hand and foot - but
because Gideon needs the appearance of a normal happy family to keep up his wholesome cutey-cute
persona.
Which brings us to Gideon Gleeful. Out of all of the adversaries the Pines family had
in the first season, we know Gideon the best. To the public he was a miraculous child psychic,
endearingly cute and entertaining. From the Tent of Telepathy he wowed the citizens of
Gravity Falls with lavish floor shows, mind reading, and bountiful merchandise.
But behind that mask, he's a sociopath who easily manipulates others into getting what
he wants. As it was revealed publicly by the Pines family in Gideon Rises, Gideon had no
real powers. He was a fraud who used telekinesis and cleverly hidden surveillance equipment
to fool everyone in town.
Given his family's accent and the fact that his show is tent based - the Gleefuls more
than likely moved to Gravity Falls and settled there after Gideon rose to stardom in the
town. It's unclear exactly when, but sometime after moving to Gravity Falls Gideon mysteriously
came in the possession of Journal number 2. More than likely, he stumbled upon it like
Dipper Pines did somewhere in the vicinity of the Mystery Shack. This would explain why
Gideon thinks the Mystery Shack is so important and why he's focused so intently on seizing
control of it from Grunkle Stan.
Journal number 2 is problematic - because it not only contains information on the control
and summoning of some dangerous creatures and demons, but it also contains information
on how to manufacture dangerous occult items. We know first hand that Gideon was able to
use the information from the book to create an amulet he wore on his bolo tie that gave
him seemingly limitless telekinetic powers, and it had the incantations to summon Bill
Cipher.
Journal number 2 was written at a time when the unrevealed author was still more lucid
and trusting. Since these journals were theoretically written chronologically, It's clear from what
little we've seen of it's pages that it was around this time when the author began dabbling
in dark magics. Mysterious forces which left the author terrified and secretive from that
point on.
After the events of Gideon Rises, Gideon was locked up for unlawful surveillance and public
mayhem - and thanks to both Alex Hirsch's AMA and a leaked short that only aired in
Russia, we know that because of Gravity Falls insane legal system, Gideon was not only found
guilty but sent to regular adult prison. Which should have been the end of his story - but
we know first hand that he remained popular enough to launch Lil' Gideon's Bighouse - his
own public access TV show.
Lil' Gideon's Bighouse shows us that in the short time Gideon's spent behind bars, he's
already manipulated others into thinking that he's still a goody goody by helping rehabilitate
the prisoners - but, as the last scene shows - he seems to have a mysterious control over
the inmates who are powerful men willing do anything Gideon wants.
There's no real explanation just yet of how Gideon was able to take control of the prison
inmates, but I do have a theory. The closest we can come to pegging Gideon's real age is
from a quick blurb written directly from Disney XD UK's YouTube page which states that he's
just nine years old. Soak that in. Doesn't Gideon seem impossibly wise, clever, and intelligent
for a nine year old boy? Now, check out his hair. It's white. It's easy to think at first
that white is the art style's shorthand for blonde, but we've seen plenty of blond characters
in the show.
A popular belief and a running theme in pop culture is that hair turns white after a great
shock to the system. Out of all of Gravity Falls citizens, we've only seen two characters
who have white hair before their time. Gideon and Mrs. Gleeful. My theory is that Gideon
wasn't always this way. That one day after he found the second journal, he cast a spell
he shouldn't have and opened a door to horrors beyond our imagination.
Mrs. Gleeful was also there that day, and only glimpsed these unimaginable horrors - which
robbed her of her sanity. And while Mrs Gleeful fled and turned away - Gideon looked deeper.
His hair shocked pure white, and his mind changed. Altered. Smarter and left with an
unquenchable thirst for power.
Now it's unclear just how long Gideon had Journal number two in his possession, but
it's safe to say that it was before Dipper and Mabel arrived in Gravity Falls. Gideon
may have been stripped of his Journal, but he's still read the Journal. Many times over
in fact! And as a mystically intelligent child, he may not have every last detail memorized,
but he can probably recall powerful magics even without the aid of the physical journal
pages.
But what do you think? Did Gideon get help to enslave his fellow prisoners? Was he in
fact changed by powerful dark forces that shocked his hair white? How many episodes
will it take for him to break out of prison? Leave your theories and suggestions in the
comments below! And now before I close this week's meeting, I have one last order of business.
It's time for this week's challenge. Although I'm still designing a cool looking folder
to house our journal pages in, the new pages continue! If you can decode and answer all
three of this weeks riddles, then you'll get a download of Journal Entry number three - my
personal notes on Gideon Gleeful!
Now, I fully understand that a lot of new and old viewers are having difficulty with
decoding these riddles. I've heard your cries for help, and I understand. In the coming
weeks I'll start holding Code Cracking 101 classes here on YouTube - where I'll show
you directly how to decode the messages from Gravity Falls, as well as how to use the ciphers
of the Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel to decode the riddles in each of the challenges
- as well as the messages I hide in every meeting!
With no other orders of business, I hereby call a close to this weeks meeting of the
Royal Order of the Holy Mackerel. Until next time, share, subscribe, and keep cracking
those codes!
Though Gideon's hatred for the Pines family is absolute, he still has feelings of love
for Mabel. These feelings are usually expressed as a desire to trap and enslave her as his
girlfriend until she changes her mind about him, but it does leave an exploitable weakness
because we know that Gideon will never harm Mabel.