Spoiler (media) facts for kids
A spoiler is information about a story, like a movie, book, or video game, that gives away important parts of the plot. This can ruin the surprise of finding out what happens on your own. Usually, spoilers tell you the ending, the most exciting part (climax), or big plot twists.
The term "spoiler" can also mean any information about a story that you weren't supposed to know yet.
Contents
The History of Spoilers
One of the first times the word "spoiler" was used in print was in 1971. The magazine National Lampoon had an article called "Spoilers" by Doug Kenney. It told the endings of famous movies. Kenney joked that spoilers "save time and money!"
The idea of a "spoiler" became very popular when the internet started. People used the term a lot in online discussions and newsgroups (early online forums).
Early rules for online behavior, called netiquette, suggested that people should avoid sharing spoilers. If they had to share them, they should put a warning like "SPOILER ALERT." Sometimes, the spoiler text was even hidden so only people who really wanted to see it could.
Sometimes, these warnings are forgotten or left out on purpose. This can lead to someone accidentally reading about a movie, book, or TV show they were excited to experience.
How Websites Handle Spoilers
Some websites have special rules or features for spoilers.
Wikipedia articles usually share all information, including spoilers, without a warning. Before 2006, Wikipedia did give spoiler warnings, but they stopped. For example, Mathew Prichard, the grandson of writer Agatha Christie, was upset that Wikipedia revealed spoilers for her play The Mousetrap.
Some websites, like the FAQ section of IMDb (Internet Movie Database), have optional spoiler tags. You can click or highlight the text to reveal the hidden information.
There are even special apps and browser extensions that can help you avoid spoilers. For example, a Google Chrome extension for TVShow Time can block social media posts about TV episodes you haven't watched yet.
On older online discussion systems like Usenet, people would often add many blank lines before a spoiler. This pushed the spoiler text off the screen so you wouldn't see it right away. A simple code called ROT13 was also sometimes used to hide spoilers.
Many modern discussion websites let users tag their posts or threads as containing spoilers. This helps people who want to talk about a story in detail, including its ending. Social media sites like Twitter and Tumblr let users use hashtags for spoiler content. Users can then block these hashtags to avoid seeing spoilers until they've seen the movie or show.
Do Spoilers Ruin the Fun?
In 2011, two researchers, Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt, did an experiment. They wanted to see if knowing a spoiler would make a story less enjoyable. They gave people short stories with twist endings. Some people were told the twist beforehand, while others were not.
For almost every story, the people who knew the "spoiled" ending actually enjoyed the story more than those who didn't know!
A real-life example happened with the TV show Jeopardy!. When contestant James Holzhauer lost, news about it spread online hours before the episode aired in most places. Instead of ruining the show, these spoilers actually made more people tune in to see how the dominant Holzhauer was finally beaten. Jeopardy! doesn't make its audience promise to keep quiet about spoilers. People usually just follow an honor system.
Reactions to Spoilers
People involved in creating stories, like writers and directors, often have strong feelings about spoilers.
Writers and Directors
The director Henri-Georges Clouzot added a message to the end credits of his 1955 film Les Diaboliques. It said:
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Ne soyez pas DIABOLIQUES! |
Don't be DIABOLICAL! |
Similarly, Alfred Hitchcock asked audiences not to reveal the ending of his 1960 thriller Psycho. He famously said, "Please don't give away the ending, it's the only one we have."
Writer Stephen King has a different view. When asked if there were spoilers in his Dark Tower books that would ruin a comic book version, he replied, "There are no spoilers!" He compared it to watching Wizard of Oz again, even though you know how it ends.
In 2014, King was criticized for tweeting about a major character's death in HBO's Game of Thrones right after the episode aired. This spoiled the twist for people who hadn't seen it yet. King responded by mentioning the ending of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, where the main characters die. He later said, "You can't spoil a book!"
Film Studios
Some movie studios try to control spoilers very carefully. For example, the director of Terminator Salvation spread false information about the film's plot to hide the real story details.
Marvel Studios went to great lengths to keep the plots of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame a secret. Their social media campaigns included a hashtag (#DontSpoilTheEndgame), a letter from the directors, and a video with the actors asking early viewers not to spoil the movies.
Film Critics
In 2005, film critic Roger Ebert wrote an article called "Critics have no right to play spoiler." In it, he discussed how critics should handle spoilers. He started using "spoiler warnings" in his reviews after readers complained he revealed too much.
Ebert used warnings in his article, telling readers to stop if they hadn't seen Million Dollar Baby and didn't know its plot. He believed critics should not ruin the experience for others.
Artists
Artist Mario García Torres created a series of works called "Spoiler Paintings." These large, colorful paintings had spoilers from Hollywood films written on them. They were shown at an art exhibition in Mexico.
See also
- Film criticism
- Film trailer
- Teaser trailer
- Broadcast delay
- In medias res
Websites examples
- Spoiler.io is a random spoiler website.
- Themoviespoiler is a movie description website.
