a resource by kars
ABOUT
Blurryface's main profile picture on Twitter.
twenty one pilots' fourth album, Blurryface, saw the introduction of the band's now popular and widely well-known cryptic marketing and online fan engagement techniques. This was in the form of giving the album's namesake and main character, Blurryface, a Twitter account in which he would tease new content for dedicated fans and add an extra ARG-like experience to the album era.
Blurry's twitter account was created on January 12th, 2015, well before the band announced the album with the lead single, Fairly Local, in March 2015. The account remained dormant until April.The account was never directly mentioned by the band and was meant to be more like a hidden easter egg for the album amongst fans, but quickly spread as the account became more active; eventually cementing itself in twenty one pilots history. Though neither Tyler or Josh have talked about the account, many people close to them have proved its legitimacy and connections directly to the band (even though Blurryface's tweets alone were plenty of proof).Overall, the reason that the account was so enticing to fans was because it was run by Blurryface himself. Having the character of the band's new concept album directly interact with fans in multiple ways was inventive, fun and terrifying all at once. It was an incredibly genius marketing move on the band's part, because it helped sell the character and the main points of the album to fans, drawing many in to join the Clique solely because of the account itself, and also helping many veteran fans become accustomed to the new aesthetic of the era.Blurryface is most popularly identified by his tweeting style, consisting of tweets that were (most of the time) in all caps, haphazardly spaced and overall, threatening.
Blurryface tweeting about his name in the early months of 2016
He is probably most well known for his leaks, whether it be songs, a tour announcement or the entirety of his own album. However, Blurryface has successfully used almost every feature on Twitter during his tenure on the platform, even using Twitter's (discontinued) paired livestreaming app, Periscope. Blurry is also infamous for deleting his tweets, sometimes immediately after posting, which has made keeping a complete archive of his Twitter activity increasingly difficult within the past years.With that being said, if there is any information you believe this timeline is missing, please contact me through Twitter or Instagram and let me know. I've done my best to keep a solid record since joining the Clique in 2016, but this timeline may not be 100% complete! It's as close as I can possibly manage.It is also worth noting that (as of present day), Blurryface is the only "real" cryptic social media account that is directly affiliated with the band (besides the @lvlcnrn accounts that were spread across social media during the summer 2020 Level of Concern ARG). Any other account claiming to be affiliated with the band or posting in any cryptic manner is fake and should not be trusted. Blurryface's only official accounts were through Twitter and Periscope, and it remains like that to this day. But we'll get more into that later.Of course, if anything changes, this website will be updated with accurate information.
TRIGGER WARNING: This Twitter account (including tweets, photos/videos, and Periscope footage) is prone to cause anxiety and general feelings of discomfort. There is also one tweet that references suicide, but a warning will be given before an image of the tweet is shown in the timeline. Furthermore, Blurryface as a character was meant to be portrayed in a disturbing light and may be uncomfortable for some readers.I would like to remind everyone that Blurryface is a fictional character, and both Tyler and Josh and their crew are safe. This account was and still is purely for entertainment purposes.Stay safe
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TRIGGER WARNING: This Twitter account (including tweets, photos/videos, and Periscope footage) is prone to cause anxiety and general feelings of discomfort. There is also one tweet that references suicide, but a warning will be given before an image of the tweet is shown in the timeline. Furthermore, Blurryface as a character was meant to be portrayed in a disturbing light and may be uncomfortable for some readers.I would like to remind everyone that Blurryface is a fictional character, and both Tyler and Josh and their crew are safe and are never actually harmed by the account. This account was and still is purely for entertainment purposes.Stay safe
If you wish to progress to the timeline, click the arrow.
THE TIMELINE
Pictures/video are included as much as possible.In this archive, I use recently taken and better quality versions of screenshots from fans detailing the account's activity. However, I would like to kindly ask anyone reading to not contact any account you may see out of respect for their privacy. Thank you!
THE PREAMBLE
The account @blurryface was created on January 12th, 2015.
The album was not officially announced until March 17th, 2015, and the @blurryface account was not used (to anyone's knowledge) until April 14th, 2015.On March 17th, 2015, the band announced their new album, entitled "Blurryface," would be available for purchase on May 19th, 2015. Along with this announcement, they released the album's lead single, Fairly Local, alongside a music video.
However, the era had quite the leaky start prior to the band's announcement. The album name leaked on a few sites around March 11th, and the album art eventually leaked as well. Tyler acknowledged this on Twitter, claiming he knew of the leaks and planned to leak more things the next day.
Note the fans' knowledge of the album name started on March 11th, six days before the official announcement.
Tyler then followed this tweet up by posting a "leak" of the tracklist on his Instagram the next day.
Tyler had begun his own little cryptic antics before March, for example, tweeting "|-/ søøn" on Twitter, hinting towards the upcoming album's aesthetic and also the pending release of new music.
A fan on Reddit also took notice of the fact that the domain www.blurryface.com had allegedly been registered by Tyler in January. They also took note of the Twitter account, @blurryface, claiming "[it] could be related."
The next single the band would release for the Blurryface album would be the now Grammy-winning hit, Stressed Out.
Thus begins Blurryface's Twitter journey.
APRIL 14th, 2015
Blurryface posts a photo of Tyler's piano, taken at an unknown venue. A figure, presumably Tyler, stands cut off to the right.
APRIL 15th, 2015
Blurryface posts a photo featuring both Tyler and Josh, candid shots with them seemingly unaware that a photo is being taken of them.
APRIL 20th, 2015
Blurryface posts a blurred photo of the album's tracklist, presumably taken from Tyler's personal computer.
A fan also pointed out that Tyler had unfollowed the Blurryface account on Twitter. The exact date of when Tyler started following Blurryface is unknown, but fans had taken screenshots of Tyler following Blurryface prior to this.
Tyler following the account, taken before May 20th, 2015.
The reason Tyler unfollowed Blurryface is most likely because the Blurryface account was set up like an ARG, and wanted to keep the account's mysterious and anonymous feel. If he were to keep following the account, it would immediately let fans know he was "behind it" and it would lose the real-world feeling that Blurryface had and needed to successfully be understood throughout the album.
APRIL 21st, 2015
Blurryface posts a dark photo of Tyler playing the ukulele.
APRIL 22nd, 2015
Blurryface posts a photo of Tyler's old Twitter header: a spider he named Brian.
Tyler's Twitter layout pre-Blurryface announcement.
Tyler mentioning Brian the spider in a reply to Josh, where he included a "typo" in which the word "rid" was typed out to spell "ride"; possibly a reference to the song,
Tyler also tweeted out a typed version of a spider when promoting the album, which many viewed as suspicious.
APRIL 23rd, 2015
Blurryface posts his first video, which is old footage of Tyler and Josh performing during Regional At Best era, with a distorted audio in the background.
Mutant Kids Brasil on Facebook pointed out that the video was in reverse, and if you reversed the video Blurry had posted, then a beat from what seemed like a new song would play.
Translation according to Google Translate:
This time, the @blurryface account posted a video on Twitter [link to tweet]. The video was in reverse, making it difficult to understand the audio. We put the video in the original time and it got a little clearer. Is it a preview of some Blurryface song? Watch:
A fan uploaded the reversed version of the video, revealing the audio to be from what we now know as Stressed Out.
Blurry continued to post other footage from shows as well.
Right before midnight, Blurryface quickly followed and unfollowed a couple of fans.
APRIL 24th, 2015
Overnight and in the morning, Blurry favorited tweets including the words "stressed" or the phrase "stressed out" in them. This was a teaser towards the pending release of Stressed Out, which was eventually noticed by fans.
Next on Blurryface's to-do list was Direct Messaging users that were keeping an eye on him, and then blocking them.
A Reddit user takes account of their experience.
(In relation to the RBM Twitter screenshot) Fans replied to Mark's now-deleted tweet, in a state of confusion due to him saying the account was "most likely run by a fan." Many didn't believe him, such as reddit user u/MrPydog.
The tweet from Mark (ReelBearMedia) that u/MrPydog is talking about has since been deleted, but a Tumblr blog took account of what it originally said:
"mark claimed the account wasn't his and was likely just an unofficial fan account"
More miscellaneous interactions.
Blurry also liked things explaining the photos he had posted.
APRIL 25th, 2015
Earlier on the 23rd of April, Tyler had posted a piece of clique art to his Instagram (that has since been deleted). Fans noticed that in the comments, Tyler had also posted "sunday night |-/", leading the Clique to believe that Stressed Out was to be released that coming Sunday.
However, Blurryface apparently had plans of his own to release his single, tweeting on April 25th that the song was going to be released on Monday, telling his followers he made the band change the date.
Blurryface continued to post old footage of the band, including this video:
This is only one of multiple videos posted and later deleted. Because of the lack of screen recording/video-downloading technology in 2015 and later account/post deletion by fans, a majority of the videos are unfortunately lost.
With fans questioning the legitimacy of Blurryface's account and already in a frenzy over the upcoming single, Blurry singlehandedly made things both better and worse for his crowd when he utilized Twitter's then partnered livestreaming app, Periscope, to broadcast live.
Fans described the stream as having a shadow walking back and forth behind the camera and the reversed Stressed Out audio in the background; the same one Blurryface used in his previous videos. The note card against the wall read, "MY NAME'S BLURRYFACE AND I CARE WHAT YOU THINK!!" in a handwriting fans noticed was similar to Tyler's. Fans also noted that the stream was located in Westerville, Ohio, where Tyler lived at the time.
A fan explains the stream to someone who missed it. Streams were fairly few and far between and also quick, so many didn't get to witness them firsthand.
Assumedly during the night, Blurryface changed his header to match Tyler's.
APRIL 26th, 2015
This day was among the most eventful of Blurry's time on Twitter. He started out the day tweeting "MONDAY NIH T" (incorrectly spelled "night")
He posted a grainy black and white photo with some Stressed Out lyrics written on it, and many fans quickly connected the idea that it was lyrics that Blurry was posting.
Blurryface also decided to post some of the Clique's replies to his tweets, with his face superimposed overtop of the text, positioned sideways.
Fun fact: this image is oriented the same way as the Dema map is positioned on the dmaorg site (East is up) where if you compare the locations of the circles they match up.
Fans began to pick up more on the account, and theories began pouring in about the meaning of his tweets. One in particular took account of previous band content such as the Street Poetry video which "teased" Blurryface, and Blurry liked the tweet and right after posted a highly edited version of it.
Also in the mix of the Blurryface chaos was Josh's mom, Laura, tweeted claiming she knew nothing of the Blurryface account, but it was later deleted (in similar fashion to how Mark's tweet was deleted days prior)
At this point due to the high traffic and commotion surrounding Blurryface throughout social media, fake Blurryface accounts were popping up everywhere. Everything from more Twitter accounts, YouTube channels, Vine accounts and even strangers on Omegle pretending to be Blurryface only added another layer of panic and confusion to the puzzle. Keep in mind, cryptic social media posts were brand new to the Clique, and many found themselves struggling figuring out what was or wasn't real. There were two popular fake Twitter accounts at the time, one being @bluuryface and another called @blurryfacet. Blurryface tried to clear some confusion, sending the message that he was the only truly affiliated account by tweeting there was only one Blurryface (him) and that the others were all a hoax.
This tweet was later deleted.
However, this didn't stop fans from buying into the parody accounts. Many thought not to believe Blurry, and didn't back off on @bluuryface until the person running the account revealed themselves to be fake.
This account still remains up, despite the backlash they faced.
Blurryface also posted this (fittingly) blurry picture of a computer screen with some scribbles on it. Many fans were confused, but then both Blurryface and the band's social media headers changed to the same thing. Blurry had taken the band's original header and written "MONDAYNIHT" on it and signed it, so everyone knew who was up to this. Not only did it minimize the fakes' power but it helped prove complete legitimacy of the Blurryface account.
Blurryface also retweeted popular fan account Mutant Kids Brasil (MKBR) explaining everything that happened.
In order to control the chaos of the fake accounts, the skeletøn clique account on Twitter let fans know that @blurryface should be their only concern, but a turn of events ended up with Blurryface taking over @skeletonclique.
Blurryface then posted a soundless video that showed the back of an audience member at a tøp show.
As if one "hacking" didn't cause enough worry and confusion, Blurryface chose another target in the form of longtime fan and friend of the boys, DavidTheDad.
He also posted some behind the scenes footage of the Tear in My Heart music video shoot. If it looks familiar, it's because this video was featured as a part of the Level of Concern ARG files.
The day wasn't over just yet. Blurry decided to stream on Periscope again, this time, it was a stream entitled "NIHT" an according to viewers, featured some rustling, different colors and a heavy breath from Blurry.
Fan accounts of the livestream include screenshots and a description of what happened. Some claimed it to be creepier than the previous Blurryface Periscope.
Blurryface also added a bio to his account, once again trying to help fans avoid fake accounts.
A DM that a fake Blurry account had recieved was also leaked out to the timeline, in which Mark (ReelBearMedia) reached out and asked them to "let the guys have their moment," essentially telling the account to stop manipulating fans.
APRIL 27th, 2015
Blurry started his day by posting a photo in his usual crypic editing style. The photo was a sketch of what fans would later recognize as the backpack straps featured in the Stressed Out music video. Though, at the time, fans were slightly lost on what the photo meant, as the music video was yet to be released.
Later in the afternoon, Blurryface streamed on Periscope again, this time at what fans identified as an airport. Some say they identified Mark in the background.
Blurryface also blocked more people, which had started to become a trend at this point.
April 27th was the Monday night that Blurry had been referring to. So, like he said, on that night, Stressed Out was released on iTunes and the video also came out on YouTube.Right before the release, Blurryface removed the MONDAYNIH T header from his account.
APRIL 28th, 2015
Blurryface remained dormant for a majority of the day, which rendered fans confused as to what to do with themselves after being kept so busy in the past few days. Fans began to pick up connections between Blurry's tweets and Stressed Out, including lyrics and the designs on Tyler's backpack in the video.Minutes before the day was over in Eastern Standard time, Blurryface went live on Periscope breifly, this time, in a wooded forest area.
The stream took place near Nashville, Tennessee, where Tyler and Josh record and work on their records.
APRIL 29th, 2015
The forest Periscope ran into 12 AM of the 29th, but other than that, the account was silent.
MAY 1st, 2015
Blurryface returned with another seemingly random Periscope, this time, it was simply taking place in a car that was driving down a road. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison played in the background.
Fans document the stream, including DMs from a fan describing the stream.
MAY 3rd, 2015
At around 12 PM on the third, a leak of Lane Boy was found on the website KingdomLeaks. It quickly spread, most notably to the Russian social media site VK with this link, and then to a Tumblr post that is now deleted.
It soon started trending within the afternoon. It was the first of the Blurryface singles to trend within an hour of the song's leak/release.
At 7:30 PM EST, Josh went on Reddit to host an AMA (Ask Me Anything) Q&A, later that night at 10:30. Among many questions was one about the recent Lane Boy leak, to which Josh answered.
This answer, especially Josh stating that he felt "violated", surprised many fans, who believed that Tyler was clearly behind these leaks.
Fans discuss Josh's comment and the possibilities behind it.
Late at night, Tyler tweeted this:
A few minutes later, Blurryface was quick to make a follow-up to Tyler's cryptic tweet. Many fans speculated that the album would either arrive early or be late, but if anything, it wouldn't come without Blurry tampering with things.
The past-tense that Blurry used suggested to fans that Blurryface may have been behind the Lane Boy leak, but there was surely more to come. Nonetheless, by 12 AM on the fourth, Lane Boy was officially out, with the YouTube link to the song's audio posted by the band in multiple places
MAY 4th, 2015
Blurryface periscoped twice this day, the first being a fuzzy black and white screen with a plethora of noises
These are notes of what a fan believes they heard on the Periscope.
Another fan's accounts of what they believe happened on the first Periscope of the day.
The second stream was more involved, with Blurryface scrolling through his Twitter mentions and blocking various people.
According to fans he only blocked a few people, and like normal, the stream didn't last for very long.
MAY 5th, 2015
This is when Blurryface started to tease the release of Ride. He started off by tweeting a line from the song.
MAY 6th, 2015
Blurryface tweeted another variation of his last tweet. Some fans began to think that this was a way of telling his followers that the album would be delayed, which was (unknowingly to the Clique) the opposite of what would end up happening.
In these few days, some fans that had been previously blocked from the account also began to report that they had since been unblocked.
MAY 8th, 2015
Blurryface tweeted a different line from Ride.
He then immediately followed that with a tweet hinting towards the next day. This was the first of many teasers that pertained to both Ride and the album leak.
Later in the day, Blurry tweeted another picture with the caption of "Drip drip drip", which refers to an upcoming leak (when water leaks from a faucet or pipe for example, it drips).
MAY 9th, 2015
Blurry started his day in the evening for Eastern Standard Time, with a slightly different tweet in which he told his audience that they had "won".
Right after tweeting, he went on Periscope to stream for only a couple of seconds (as documented by fans) in which a loading bar was shown, with the bar at 48%.
Fans documenting the timespan of the loading bar Periscope.
Minutes after ending the stream, Blurry tweeted this photo without a caption. Many fans were very confused as to what specifically he meant by "meaning in the pattern," with many speculating that it had to do with the album cover, the lyrics of the songs or the misplaced letters that spell "TIME" next to the photo. The most likely explanation is that the pattern featured on the album cover for the song Ride was subtly placed in the background of the photo, hinting that it was almost "time" for Ride to be leaked/released.
Overall, fans had speculated that the only thing leaking was simply just Ride by itself. Every hint that Blurry had given traced back to Ride, but about 10 minutes after the previous tweet, Blurryface went live on Periscope once more.
Included is a clip from a recording taken of this stream. Due to Carrd's video uploading limits, this is not the full recording.
In this stream, Blurryface was in possession of a CD that he ended up writing on. He showed it to the audience and then proceeded to play it, and the CD played Ride. There were also soundbites being played in languages other than English. Some say they picked out what sounded like German, Russian and other European languages.This broadcast was the first hint that the entire album may be getting leaked. Some fans took offense to this, saying that they hoped Blurryface wouldn't leak the album out of respect for Tyler and Josh. Other fans were excited, taking this stream as a sign of good news instead. Many also pointed out that not only had Blurryface put "21 Pilots" on the disc rather than spelling it out (to Tyler's liking). He also crossed the ø incorrectly as well.
Blurry went dormant for about an hour and a half before tweeting again. This time, the tweet was in Russian.
Fans who spoke Russian often corrected Blurry's misusage of the language.
The tweet was roughly translated to "dripdrip", a sign that a leak was coming.
His next tweet came approximately ten minutes later, and it only stayed up for a few seconds before being deleted.
The clique was frantic, trying to figure out what exactly Blurryface was telling them to find. Only adding to the chaos, Blurry also began to delete all of his tweets.
The one thing seemingly left behind was a tweet that Blurry liked about Ride, and the possibility of a Ride leak.
Eventually, the account's layout also disappeared, with everything off of it.
A fan posted a before and after comparison of Blurryface's account.
The album was originally put on GhostTunes, a website (now shut down) that was used for music streaming where proceeds went to the artists. People quickly found it, copied it and redistributed it elsewhere, such as this link that redirected to a now-deleted Tumblr post. By the early hours of the next day, Blurryface in its entirety was on Dropbox, Tumblr, and various other music hosting websites.
MAY 10th, 2015
Though it seemed that Blurry was gone, he later tweeted "taking my time." It was a stark contrast to his usual typing style, slightly jarring fans.
It was also noted that the album leak was being removed from the Internet as much as possible, but this didn't stop fans from circulating it. A large portion of the Clique who kept up with the Blurryface Twitter willingly listened to it, given that they had the understanding that the leak was intentionally done.
Later in the day, Tyler tweeted this photo. On the surface, it just looked like a grainy, black photo. However, many people took the initiative to brighten the photo.
Brightening the photo revealed it to be a zoomed-in photo of Tyler's face. Some were quick to accuse Tyler of accidentallly posting his photo to his account instead of the Blurryface account posting it, and others took it as a sign that Tyler was well aware of the shady activities from Blurryface. Tyler deleted the tweet soon after posting it.
MAY 11th, 2015
Blurry started off his morning with another teasing tweet, continuing his "calm" typing style. It was assumed that Blurry was (and had been) alluding to a music video for Ride.
He then returned to "normal", taking a jab at Tyler later in the afternoon.
Earlier that day, Tyler had tweeted "do you like them?" directly addressing the leak and asking the Clique if they liked what they heard from the album. Those who had already listened to the full album gave their praise, and the overall reaction to the tweet was positive. However, a minute after tweeting about verification, Blurryface had his own thoughts to voice to Tyler, directly replying to his tweet.
Outside of Tyler having previously followed Blurryface's account, this was their only direct interaction with each other on Twitter.
MAY 13th, 2015
In the evening, twenty one pilots released the music video for Ride. Blurryface remained silent, and wouldn't tweet again for another week. Some people made a few connections between Blurry's livestreams and the video.
MAY 17th, 2015
The band released Blurryface officially; two days prior to its intended release. According to the band, "[they] couldn’t wait any longer to get this in everyone’s hands." Many speculated that it really had been released early due to the chaos (and backlash) that the leak caused.
MAY 20th, 2015
Blurryface returned with two more tweets on the 20th, the first of which being a declaration from Blurry that he had "had it" with the Clique.
TW: SUICIDE REFERENCE
He then followed it up with a rather disturbing tweet that read "hang them up," along with a picture of Tyler and Josh upside down as if they were hanging. This was a grim and straightforward look into Blurryface's true intentions and agenda (that of which would be explored in later albums and narratives).
MAY 29th, 2015
Blurryface tweeted an extremely incomprehensible black and white photo.
He also liked a few tweets that had both the words "lane" and "boy" in them. As the album had already been released, this could only point to an upcoming Lane Boy music video.
JUNE 10th, 2015
Blurry was dormant until June, when he tweeted yet another black and white photo, a little more comprehensible than the last.
The photo appears to be the floral kimono worn during Lane Boy.
Fans were quick to understand that the Lane Boy video was coming soon which would later be confirmed by Tyler saying this during an interview at KROQ on the 30th. However, they didn't know when, and Blurryface wouldn't give anymore hints for almost another month.
JULY 3rd, 2015
Blurryface tweeted what looked to be a snippet of a photo, and many fans quickly caught on that this was indeed a shot from Lane Boy. Because the video was shot in front of a live audience earlier in the year, most everyone knew what to look for in regards to Lane Boy hints.
Later in the day, Tyler changed his header to match Blurry's latest post.
On July 8th, Tyler posted this comment under his new Instagram post:
JULY 16th, 2015
Blurryface gave his first hint as to when the music video would be out by posting a photo in numerical code.
Reddit user @allphunintended decoded the message, revealing it to say "LANE BOY 07 20 15".
Blurryface gave his first hint as to when the music video would be out by posting a photo in numerical code.
JULY 17th, 2015
In the morning, Blurryface posted a video with shots from behind the scenes of the Lane Boy music video.
The video depicts black and white shots of drumming, the two actors in the Hazmat suits, and Tyler rapping. It's short at 5 seconds long and has basic background white noise.
Blurry deleted the tweet just minutes after posting it. Luckily, fans had either downloaded the video or recorded it through a separate device, and it was shared online. Fans were very excited by the teaser and immediately clocked it as the Lane Boy music video.
Later, Tyler also teased the music video, very quickly changing his layout to screencaps from the video. He then changed his profile picture back.
The photo in higher quality.
A fan explains the recent series of events.
Someone also made a comparison between a photo that Blurry tweeted on July 3rd.
Blurryface was active once again later that night, tweeting a very dark and low quality photo of Tyler being filmed during the video shoot. It was also flipped upside down.
A fan brightened their screenshot of the tweet.
Also notable were Blurryface's likes. He had liked many tweets, all of which shared 11:00 as a common time.
Fans put together that the video would be released at 11 AM on the 20th.
By the end of the day, this was an overview of what Blurryface's account looked like.
JULY 20th, 2015
Blurryface started his day very early in the morning. At 3 AM, he tweeted eight tally marks, and was following 7 people by 4 AM.
At the point of this screenshot, Blurry was still choosing people to follow.
At 4 AM, Blurry tweeted 7 tally marks, and was following 7 people. The countdown to 11 AM EST and the Lane Boy video was on.
By 5 AM, Blurryface unfollowed a person, but didn't tweet another tally tweet. This pattern of not tweeting and only unfollowing would continue for a while.
The following decreased by one every hour.
The following decreased by one every hour. He also ended up unliking all of the tweets in his likes. He didn't tweet again until 10 AM, when he tweeted a single tally mark, and was only following one last person. He also started deleting his other tweets.
Right before 11 AM, Blurry unfollowed the last person.
A number of the people that Blurryface followed took advantage of Blurryface's DMs suddenly being open for them to talk privately, with Blurry replying on occasion.
When the video was released, Blurryface had deleted all of his tweets and had an empty account.
JULY 22nd, 2015
Blurry very quickly liked then unliked a tweet that was teasing a new video from the band.
The video this user is talking about is not clear, however it was most likely related to the twenty one pilots Goes East video series on YouTube.
AUGUST 9th, 2015
Blurryface came back after a small absence, tweeting numbers up to five with a question mark.
Many fans conspired that this was a hint at another music video. A popular choice was Heavydirtysoul, although a music video wouldn't be released until 2016 with "Heavydirtysoul (Circle)" and then officially in 2017. Though this could be what Blurry meant with the tweet, he could also have been hinting towards the upcoming "twenty one pilots Goes East" video series, which was six parts.
AUGUST 12th, 2015
Blurry tweeted a time, prompting fans to look foward to 13:30, or 1:30 PM EST. There was no specific date, leaving fans confused.
By the time 1:30 PM came around, people were wondering what was going to happen. Blurry didn't have an answer until the next day.
AUGUST 13th, 2015
Blurry clarified his last tweet saying "it" hasn't happened yet, and that it would be in twelve hours.
Fans awaited this release in hopes that it would be a music video, however, they turned out to be in over their heads.
The band released the first episode of their newest mini series on YouTube, "twenty one pilots Goes East". Blurryface then tweeted, saying fans could "have their two hours". He then liked a few tweets that elaborated on what exactly his two hour tweet meant.
Many people were very unhappy with this outcome, having so often expected music video releases and interesting leaks. Blurry went silent for another month.
SEPTEMBER 10th, 2015
Blurry tweeted "only me", seemingly a reminder that he was the only true Blurryface account.
OCTOBER 20th, 2015
Blurryface posted a photo, which absolutely nobody could figure out the subject of.
OCTOBER 21st, 2015
Another drawing was tweeted. Fans were used to Blurry posting these kinds of darkened photos, they brightened it up to reveal some scribbles. When flipped upside down, the drawing looks to be an outline of the Emotional Roadshow World Tour promotional photo.
Many people pointed out the person-like figures in Blurry's drawing.
OCTOBER 23rd, 2015
Blurry posted another dark photo. This time, when you brightened it, fans could see the actual picture of Tyler and Josh in the Emotional Roadshow promotional photo.
He then replied to multiple fans with a pastel-colored string of numbers. He also liked his own replies.
This puzzle seemed to be a little trickier than previous things Blurry had posted, but eventually were solved by a few fans. User cf6h597 on Reddit gave a very detailed explanation.
OCTOBER 25th, 2015
Blurryface tweeted a rather agressive statement about the "Emotional Roadshow" that he was teasing. By this point, many people understood that this was a tour, and began to challenge Blurry on his beliefs.
Blurryface would eventually go on to delete these tweets, and would not return to Twitter until 2016.
FEBRUARY 21st, 2016
Seemingly spontaneously, Blurryface returned with a message.
The reactions and interpretations of this tweet were varied. Many thought Blurry was talking about a rising trend in which people who weren't "real fans" of the band would post the Blurryface line from Stressed Out. Others thought maybe he was talking about other Blurryface-like accounts on social media. One of the most popular fake Blurry accounts was @00001BF01001, which would end up being an even bigger problem later. Fake accounts would often post at the same times as Blurry, which would cause widespread confusion across the fanbase.
A few tweets from an imposter Blurryface account.
FEBRUARY 25th, 2016
Blurry followed up his last tweet with a new variation of the same message.
FEBRUARY 28th, 2016
He continued his mini meltdown over his name, changing up the wording slightly this time.
MARCH 1st, 2016
Once again, another tweet about Blurry and his name.
MARCH 3rd, 2016
...and again.
MARCH 9th, 2016
The final tweet of Blurry's tirade came on the ninth. By this point, it was very clear that something big was bound to happen with Blurryface and the account, and fans began to keep close watch of Blurry, Tyler, and more often than not, fake accounts.
MARCH 22nd, 2016
Tyler changed his bio on Twitter breifly to let fans know that the end of the Blurryface account had not yet arrived, and that "it" was never over. This intrigued much of the clique, who waited eagerly for the next Blurryface tweet to arrive.
MARCH 28th, 2016
Blurryface tweeted what would probably end up being one of his biggest posts and end up sending the Clique into a frenzy.He tweeted a photo of his face, with a scrambled set of letters and symbols superimposed over the top, with the caption "there is only me", and "contact me". People immediately figured out that the scramble of letters was actually a link: https://www.facesareablur.com.
The landing page of the website was its only feature: a simple black screen with a singular piece of text in the middle. [email protected], an email, in the Blurryface font (Futura BK). When you clicked the email address, it would prompt you to send a message in an email.
A few people who emailed Blurryface would receive cryptic replies in his usual typing style.
Out of curiosity, a fan on Reddit wondered if the email address on facesareablur.com was connected to the actual Blurryface account. Upon submitting a password reset request, it was found out that the email was also connected to the Twitter account as well.
MARCH 29th, 2016
Wanting to capitalize off of the chaos, fake Blurryface accounts leached off of the cryptic website trend, and one of the most popular ones surfaced only a day after Blurry tweeted. The person behind a fake Blurryface account created tonightitbegins.com, getting the name from what they thought "TIB" stood for in Blurryface's email. Fans, despite Blurry's reminders, were eager to get their hands on more content, so they followed along with "updates" the site would make. Other popular fake accounts and content included Instagram accounts, Vines, Snapchat posts and a few YouTube videos, all made by different imposter Blurryface accounts that had nothing to do with the real Blurryface.
After a lot of fans became fearful and anxious about the over-saturation of content and lack of clarity, an account on Instagram reached out to Mark through email to ask if tonightitbegins.com. Mark confirmed it was a hoax.
Blurry also tweeted another reminder that he was only on Twitter, and that his account was the only real Blurryface.
MARCH 31st, 2016
Blurry had liked multiple tweets that were denouncing the fake website, trying to prove his legitimacy and solidarity as an account affiliated with the band.
APRIL 2nd, 2016
The band was scheduled to play the 2016 March Madness Music Festival in Houston, Texas on April 2nd. Fans were apprehensive about the Blurryface situation at hand, and Blurry returned to Twitter to make arguably his most famous tweet.
To this day, it is still debated on what Blurryface really meant with this tweet. Some say that it signifies Blurry's defeat, while others think he was talking about Tyler's defeat. Nevertheless, Tyler later appeared on stage at their live-streamed show wearing a blue jumpsuit. Twitter exploded with theories, questions and excitement at Blurry and Tyler's interaction.
Tyler's jumpsuit from the show on April 2nd, a direct response to Blurryface.
Blurryface kept his promise, and deleted all of his tweets along with replacing his profile picture with an empty black photo, as it remains to this day.
Along with that, the entire facesareablur site turned the light blue that is featured in the band's old logo. The Clique had a moment of rest--Blurryface was defeated, and wouldn't return for a long time.
The website remained like this until the site's domain was released again for purchase in 2020, and the site was wiped.
DECEMBER 16th, 2016
Blurryface made an unexpected return right before the end of the band's most successful year. He tweeted another mildly threatening statement regarding "a new take". The tweet was teasing the future release of TOPxMM, a collaboration between twenty one pilots and Mutemath, where 4 Blurryface songs and Heathens were reworked and released for free.
Fake accounts still ran rampant across social media, a particularly popular one on Instagram causing the band's good friend, David The Dad, to rehash a DM he recieved from Tyler pertaining to fake accounts. David posted the reminder a few days after Blurry's tweet.
Blurryface disappeared once more.
FEBRUARY 3rd, 2017
Blurryface came back at midnight to tease the final music video for his era and his album: Heavydirtysoul. He changed his layout and left the Clique with two tweets.
The photo was upside down, and featured a grainy black and white shot of Tyler in the backseat of the car featured in the music video, with red X's across both his eyes.
The music video was released later that night, and Blurryface once again cleared his entire account and changed his layout back to all-black.
JULY 17th, 2017
Right before the hiatus started, Josh gave fans a hint as to where the band was headed with their next record during an awards speech at the 2017 APMAs. On stage, he explained that Tyler couldn't attend because he was "off severing ties with Dema". This sent the Clique into a frenzy trying to figure out what exactly Josh meant by that. Blurryface offered guidance by coming online to like a fan's theory about what Dema meant--which ended up being the correct basis for Dema in the Trench album.
He soon unliked the tweet, and Blurry became completely dormant for years.
APRIL 2nd, 2021
The Trench era had come to a close with the "terminating" of the DMAORG website that had been the band's new outlet for cryptic posting. The activity spurred loads of conversation and theories as to what was going to happen. Blurryface made a return on the fifth anniversary of his U Never Wear Blu tweet, looking to give the Clique more guidance as he did in 2017.He liked a tweet from a fan who had garnered a large presence and notoriety for lore-based knowledge over the course of the Trench era, confirming the direction of the upcoming narrative and what it meant for the rest of the story. His return was highly unexpected, and theories poured in over the course of the coming days.
APRIL 5th, 2021
When new cryptic posting surfaced again, Blurryface followed. Fans were in high anticipation of the announcement of the next album and era, and Blurry ended up telling them the name of it all.
At first, some thought he was lying, or that he was using Scaled And Icy as its anagram for Clancy Is Dead, a reference to the recent lore. Blurryface, however, proved to be right, and Scaled And Icy was announced and set for a release in May of 2021.Blurryface's activity remained unchanged for over three years. This is the longest that the account has ever gone without deleting evidence of his activity.
JUNE 12th, 2024
On June 12th 2024, the Engineering account for the Twitter/X platform announced that all likes on tweets would now be private, only visible to an account's owner. Thus, Blurryface's profile was adjusted to have the Likes tab removed, which has removed his previous like from April of 2021 from public view. The tweet would remain liked for the time being, as shown in proof by the original poster.
If Blurryface is to like any tweets in the future, it will be very difficult to validate unless the account owner posts screenshot or video evidence of it in their notifications or Likes tab on the post.
A screenshot from the Likes tab of the tweet Blurry liked, along with the following screenrecording of the like.
JUNE 17th, 2024
Ahead of the highly-anticipated release of the Paladin Strait music video for twenty one pilots' newest album, Clancy, Blurryface returned and deleted his remaining tweet. It was noticed first by a fan at 8:35 EST. However, his like still remained on the tweet from @shlofolina.
JUNE 18th, 2024
On the morning of June 18th, a fan noticed that Blurryface's account which previously said he had one like now had nothing showing. They assumed Blurry had unliked the tweet.
Sure enough, when checking through the likes of their tweet, the fan who Blurry had liked the tweet from confirmed that he was no longer listed.
Blurryface's account was once again, empty of any previous activity.
JUNE 20th, 2024
On May 29th, twenty one pilots released Clancy - Digital Remains, a digital album with a set of unreleased digital images and assets to pair with the album cycle. Fans found out on June 18th that these images came together to form a puzzle, and quickly went to solve the puzzle. On the 19th, a livestream was held to document their efforts.Apparently, Blurryface was amongst the viewers. At around 7:30 AM EST on June 20th, he replied to a fan, telling them "ISA W" (I SAW). In traditional fashion, the tweet was almost immediately deleted.
He also changed his profile header, part of which is also seeingly part of the Digital Remains puzzle.
At roughly 9:30 EST, Blurryface replied to another fan with a cryptic DMAORG video.
The video contains morse code spelling out "PAGES" and reversed audio from Blurryface's part at the end of the song Paladin Strait. Putting in the violatio code shown in the video on the site dmaorg.info leads to a page locked by a password.
Upon finding the password for https://www.dmaorg.info/found/103_37/clancy.html (8325), Blurry deleted the video.
Around 11:00 PM EST, Blurryface removed his header and began to block fans in very similar fashion to 2015.
In total, 6 people were supposedly blocked. This corresponded to the time in which the music video for Paladin Strait would be announced the following day, at 6 AM. Though, the fans still remained blocked at the time of the announcement.
JUNE 21st, 2024
Right before 12 PM EST, Blurryface unblocked all six individuals.
A few others came forward claiming to have been softblocked (where an acount quickly blocks/unblocks to remove a follower) after seeing they weren't following the Blurryface account, but there is no concrete proof of this outside word of mouth.
AUGUST 28th, 2024
The following tweet was sent at around 12 AM EST (Ohio time) on August 29th, but because the tweet was made during a show in Los Angeles, it is categorized as being tweeted around 9 PM PST (LA time) on the 28th.
During the second night of the Los Angeles stop in the Clancy World Tour (the ninth show so far), Blurryface made another appearence, both on Twitter and infiltrating the show.
Right before The Judge was set to start, Blurryface tweeted "We have always watched your diversions" and deleted it right after. This suprised many, as both Tyler and Josh were on stage performing when the tweet was sent out.Shortly after, during the video segment in which fans are featured on the video boards singing The Judge, the same DMAORG Restricted Content graphic flashed up. This interrupted the video and continued to confuse and shock fans.
This video showcases LA Night 2's The Judge video.
Additionally before the show, the featured Clancy-style letter in the Fan Premiere Exhibit was covered in what looked to be black Blurryface paint. During the show, Tyler's Clancy shirt worn towards the end of the show had the name Clancy printed in black instead of red. Josh's drumsticks used during Trees were allegedly red as well. These all could be possible hints of Blurryface infiltrating the show.
OCTOBER 12th, 2024
At 2:50 PM, Blurryface posted a heavily filtered black and white photo and immediately deleted it within a couple of seconds. The photo depicts the Bandito Lounge tent at the Clancy Tour FPE event, flipped upside down with a shredded flag. The letter attached to the tent appears to read "For Clancy,"
This timeline will be updated to keep up to date with any and all Blurryface Twitter activity.
CREDITS
CREDITS
I do not own any of the media on this archiveI would like to thank the Blurryface era Clique for doing their best to document Blurry's Twitter activity.Thank you to Amy, who generously funded keeping this site up for one more year while I work on porting this to a PDF. Thank you to the lovely people who proofread this before sharing it, and thank you to the reader for taking your time to dive into this.Because there are over 200+ files at the time I'm piecing this all together and because this information has been collected over 5+ years, it would be nearly impossible to credit each individual account I've taken screenshots from. This, and a majority of the accounts that kept record of the Blurryface account are no longer fans of twenty one pilots, and I wish to respect their privacy. Sources have also been deleted/deactivated, so it's my belief they wouldn't want credit.However, it is my pleasure to credit the following for the media and information presented in this archive:2015-2017 Twitter Clique
2015-2017 Tumblr Clique
2015-2017 Instagram Clique
The twenty one pilots Subreddit
The Wayback Machine
Google Images
David the Dad
Mark Eshleman/Reel Bear Media
Skeleton Clique
Mutant Kids Brasil
twenty one pilots
and of course, Blurryface himself.
If you believe anything in this archive is your original media and would like credit, please let me know and I'll be more than happy to give you credit.Please do not redistribute this website without properly crediting my Twitter or Instagram, and please do not claim this as your own. Thank you!stay alive |-/