The Book of Bill

“Oh, you might feel silly about meeting me. After all, ‘Bill Cipher’ is imaginary. You’re real and I’m not, right? BUT ARE YOU SO SURE ABOUT THAT? After all, you’re mortal. One day, you’ll be dust. But I’m an idea. And an idea can’t be killed.”

This passage emphasizes Bill’s arrogance and force of will, as well as a playfulness with the concept of death. While he ‘died’ at the end of Gravity Falls, his ‘death’ was less a physical death and more a loss of power. Bill’s entire identity is driven by attention, a point Stanford later makes; without attention, he has no power, and vice versa. Bill cannot die so long as he is enjoyed, providing an ominous perspective on the power of entertainment and art as a form of immortality, for better or for worse.

“With that out of the way, all this book needs is some ink! Hey, can I borrow some of your blood? Just press your thumb here, and I’ll absorb some right into the page! You won’t even notice it’s gone. THERE YA GO! AHH, that feels good!”

This passage’s playful syntax provides an example of the contrast and irony in Bill’s patterns of speech and dialogue. Bill speaks by making horrific or violent things seem playful or unimportant; asking for the reader’s blood is a casual request rather than a serious threat. This illustrates Bill’s seeming disconnect—and utter disrespect—for human life, tying into the theme of Nihilism and the Tenuousness of Reality. What may matter to a “normal” human is unimportant to him.

“1) The most important triangle in history; your new best friend, life coach, death coach, overlord, style consultant, mentor, mental case, mastermind, and mind master. 2) The writer, director, star, and EP behind all your favorite nightmares! 3) WKH JXB ZKR ZULWHV WHK FRGHV”

This passage utilizes wordplay to define Bill, emphasizing his most dangerous traits—he is a life coach and a ‘death coach,’ as well as a ‘mastermind’ and ‘mind master,’ demonstrating his intelligence, need to control others, and disregard for the difference between life and death. Additionally, this passage includes a code, which translates using a Caesar Cipher to “THE GUY WHO WRITES THE CODES,” placing Bill as the creator of the many ciphers and puzzles scattered across the book’s pages.

“Like a potato that grew too close to Chernobyl, I’ve got eyes everywhere. Any symbol of me that you draw, scratch, spray-paint, or burn into the human world creates a DIRECT PEEPHOLE from my reality to yours! The more I see, the more my power grows! The more my power grows, the more fun we can have when you and I finally meet! Wanna help? Put me somewhere no one would ever expect! (Just keep me out of the shower, you freak!)”

Bill attempts to intimidate and impress the reader in this passage, emphasizing that he has endless power due to the repetition of his symbol, drawn on the dollar bill and by fans of Gravity Falls across the world. Despite this, there is irony in him asking the reader to draw him somewhere in the world; Bill is indirectly admitting that he is weak without the help of humans who believe in him and pay attention to him. This contrasts with his repeated, violent derision of humans, foreshadowing his ultimate defeat at the end of the novel.

“SYNTHESIZED MUSIC—If I had ears, I would rip them off when I hear this. TINFOIL—Yes, wearing aluminum on your head WILL keep me out of your thoughts. Sixer went a little overboard putting aluminum inside his head. That fella lives for drama! MCGUCKET’S MEMORY GUN—If you see one of these things, DESTROY IT. DESTROY IT AND I’LL GIVE YOU DIAMONDS.”

All three of Bill’s (readable) weaknesses on this page are referenced in the show: in Season 1, he is defeated partially using synthesized music; in Season 2, Ford reveals he has a metal plate in his head to keep Bill out; finally, McGucket’s memory gun is used to permanently defeat Bill in the show’s finale, hence his vitriolic hatred of it. The aluminum, however, is a play on the tinfoil hat theory, used by conspiracy theorists to block mental control or other effects on the mind. It has become a representative, mocking symbol of conspiracy theorists, making Bill’s assertion that it defeats him ironic and humorous.

“I took a glimpse at the book myself, and it was mostly extremely complex riddles—he’s trying to bait me into solving them because he knows my curiosity is my Achilles’s heel. And he’s counting on yours being the same!”

Ford’s characterization is typically based in his intense love of knowledge and learning, which Bill continually takes advantage of, even in the book’s “present.” This passage implies that the reader is desperate to know more about Gravity Falls, breaking the fourth wall to gently poke fun at fans, since The Book of Bill was aimed at fans of the original series who have since grown into adults still wanting to learn more about the show’s lore. Breaking the fourth wall makes the reader a character in themselves, since continuing to read the book fulfills Ford’s warning that the reader is succumbing to their curiosity.

“If stuck on a question, you may feel an overwhelming sense that you’re falling behind. That all the other students are smarter than you, and that your life is over before it’s even begun. You may conclude that the universe is fundamentally unfair and designed only for your suffering. Lean into this feeling! Let it fester and grow until you’re glowing with incandescent fury, aflame with an unquenchable yearning for vengeance! They thought they were smarter than you? Well, you’ll show them! You’ll show them all!”

This passage—which is a small note above the beginning of Bill’s intelligence test—represents the worldview Bill holds and encourages in the reader. Bill does not believe in letting go and growing; instead, he encourages the reader to lean into their childish feelings and impulses. He promotes The Pursuit of Knowledge for Selfish Gain, a desire that only makes his intended victims more vulnerable to his attention and flattery. This passage, while intending to be relatable to anyone who has struggled taking a test, also shows that Bill has still not “gotten over” Stanford, since he manipulated Stanford with the exact same language due to Stanford’s time at the embarrassing, unimpressive college Backupsmore.

“That’s right! The REAL test was to see if you were gullible enough to waste your time actually doing these pointless questions, and it turns out you were! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I’M WRITING OUT MYSELF LAUGHING! (Please proceed to put on the ‘hat of shame’ for the rest of your life.)”

This passage captures the humor in the book, which is mocking, bitter, and satirical. In many passages, Bill openly mocks the reader, demonstrating his distaste for any traits he deems unworthy of his attention (or traits that make the reader difficult to manipulate). Bill’s reference to a dunce cap also highlights his wildly changing forms of cruelty toward those who displease him; sometimes he threatens to remove body parts, and other times he tells people to wear a dunce cap. Bill’s unpredictability is what makes him most dangerous—and, presumably, most entertaining to the audience.

“The truth is, our entire multiverse is a holographic trading card being held inside a collector’s binder within the backpack of an Unfathomable Being outside of time known as ‘Dennis.’ Every time you feel briefly dizzy, it’s because Dennis just took the card out to show his older brother, Kyle, offering to trade it for a string cheese. This is what physicists call ‘string theory.’”

This passage uses the genre of cosmic horror, or Lovecraftian horror, a staple of Bill’s entire existence, but it also maintains the weirdness that is characteristic of Bill and Gravity Falls as a whole. “Dennis” is not truly horrifying—his description is mundane—but his capacity to be frightening is due to his unknowability, as well as the human inability to comprehend being a speck of meaningless life amid multiverses. Bill emphasizes the unknowability and meaninglessness of the world, appealing to nihilism and the tenuousness of reality to reinforce their feelings of helplessness and insignificance. This helps him control his victims—a classic Lovecraftian horror trope, used in iconic works such as “The Call of Cthulhu.”

“Humans are trapped in a horrible moist bag of spongy gland fat known as ‘skin,’ which gets wrinklier and wrinklier over time until ultimately humans morph into their final form, known as ‘Larry King.’ IT IS INEVITABLE.”

Larry King is vital to the lore of Gravity Falls, inexplicably appearing as a living wax statue in Season 1 (voiced by himself) and later appearing as the decapitated head of that wax statue in Season 2. This passage both ties the book to the source material and uses humor to contrast with the gruesome tone in the rest of the passage. Bill’s disgust at human skin contrasts with the normal picture of Larry King, and his assumption that all humans eventually become King shows his lack of understanding and appreciation for humanity while maintaining a random sense of humor characteristic of his perspective.

“ASKING ME IF I’VE BEEN IN LOVE IS LIKE ASKING A BLACK HOLE IF IT LIKED YOUR MIXTAPE OR ASKING A SUBTERRANEAN FUNGAL SPORE NETWORK WHO ITS FAVORITE ANIMATED PRINCESS IS. I’M A MULTIDIMENSIONAL SPECTER OF CHAOS THAT TRANSCENDS REALITY, I couldn’t possibly CARE LESS about WHICH BAG OF PLASMA BLUSHES AT WHO OR WHY!”

Bill uses similes to express his disgust at being reduced to human levels of feeling, comparing himself to black holes and fungal spore networks—huge, powerful entities not fully understood by humans—as opposed to pieces of “petty” artwork like mixtapes and princesses. He quickly frames this as an issue of caring, however, rather than an issue of being incapable of understanding love since Bill cannot allow himself to be seen as having weaknesses.

“Humans have this gross flaw where then they see something weak and pathetic, they want to take care of it, instead of crushing its bones. Use this strategic miscalculation to your advantage! After slathering your date with all the charm you can excrete, tell them some sob story about how you’re actually tragic and misunderstood, how no one can possibly relate to you, blah blah blah, that kind of drivel. You’ll have that dupe eating out of the palm of your hand!”

This passage ironically foreshadows Bill’s own play at manipulating the reader, since he ends up revealing his own “sob story” in the hopes that it will get them to trust him and do whatever he wants. Bill’s manipulation may not be romantic, but it is acutely relational; his intense focus on not being understandable by others recurs in his relationship with Stanford and his manipulation of Ford and the reader both. His mindset helps define The Impacts of Isolation Versus Community, as Bill functions through isolation—all his “love” advice centers around isolating others because that is all he knows how to do.

“You will meet your tragic death imitating the playful stunts you see on a TV-Y7-rated cartoon show. Devastated, a network censor will punch a wall and fall to their knees, sobbing. They should have done more!”

For the 10th anniversary of Gravity Falls, Alex Hirsch posted a video compiling multiple email chains between him and Disney S&P—their network censors—which consisted of him politely mocking their requests for minor, ridiculous changes to the show’s script and animation. Many of the “deaths” in this section are a reference to pop culture or history, including the Kennedy assassination. However, this one is likely a specific jab at Disney, given the external authorial context, as Alex Hirsch has repeatedly criticized them for censoring queer relationships and harmless content within the show. The dramatic humor emphasizes the highly specific audience of the graphic novel as well—this potentially is not as funny to a reader unfamiliar with the fanbase and lore of Gravity Falls.

“Well, LOOK what we HAVE HERE! SCRIMBLES the ELF seems to be CHAINED UP to this page, and there’s no way to get him out! His elf-bones are made of glass, so if you turn the page, you’ll crush him to death! But if you never turn the page, you’ll never see the rest of my AMAZING BOOK! It’s his life versus your fleeting amusement. WHAT’LL IT BE?”

This passage represents Bill’s “morality” test—reading the book results in Scrimbles’s death, while stopping reading theoretically saves him. This implies that Bill feels he has full control over the reader’s curiosity since putting down the book would prevent Bill’s plot to reenter the universe, an outcome he does not want. This passage highlights Bill’s cruelty while also emphasizing the metaphysical nature of the book and of ideas. Killing Scrimbles is literally impossible since he is a drawing on a page, but Bill’s point that he himself is an unkillable idea does remind the reader that, whether or not the outcome is “real,” they still choose to “kill” the elf to satisfy their curiosity.

“Hey, look, here’s my collection of silly straws! Tee-hee! They’re so silly! Wow, I love these things! Isn’t this a nice change of pace? Listen to that steel drum! Man, what a great page. Nothing else to see here, just these straws. I cut the page where I was gonna talk about Shermie Pines, but it was worth it!”

This passage utilizes imagery through the reference to a “steel drum” to emphasize the playful, celebratory nature of the page. This is despite the countless codes with dark messages lining the straws, including one that spells out, “Twisted out of shape after the kill, the ghosts of his family are haunting him still” when translated using the episode credits cipher. The contrast between the messages and the visual and verbal tone of these pages reveals the truth about Bill—he hides behind a cheery exterior but is still brutally violent underneath. Additionally, the Shermie Pines reference is a jab at fans, who regularly ask Hirsch for information on Mabel and Dipper’s actual grandfather—Stan and Ford’s brother—and have been repeatedly denied.

“I needed intel to sway [Mabel], but her HALL OF SECRET FANTASIES was guarded by bouncers. Yep, Craz Zazzler and Xyler Q. Blaze, two neon 1-dimensional surf himbos with backstories so confusing that no one could tell if they were brothers, husbands, or clones. To earn their trust I took the form of ‘Chill Cipher,’ a ‘human boy who loves being rad, and having the right amount of eyes.’ They were intrigued by my skateboard trick (eating my skateboard) but dared me to prove my trustworthiness by joining them in…a bonding montage.”

Craz and Xyler are recurrent minor characters in Gravity Falls, although they are imaginary projections of Mabel’s mind. Craz and Xyler seem to be satirical representations of boys in ‘80s or ‘90s animated teen movies, and the imagery in this passage—whether “surf himbos” or the word “rad”—emphasizes the strange mixture of time periods they represent. Bill’s dislike of their required bonding montage, too, ties to the greater theme of isolation and connection within the graphic novel, since Bill despises actual connection that makes him an equal with others.

“For some reason, whenever I try to talk about that day, there’s this loud buzzing in my ears and I black out for 30 seconds. Well, we can come back to it!”

This brief passage takes place right under a mostly blacked-out description of Bill’s destruction of his family and home world. It is unclear if this is a deliberate manipulation on Bill’s part, intended to make him seem more sympathetic and tortured to the reader, or if he genuinely cannot remember his brutal slaughter of his family. Nonetheless, the ciphers throughout the book imply this event is what fully warped him into the monstrous dream demon he is in the “present.” Bill never comes back to this story, instead gleefully moving on to topics he enjoys and continuing to pretend his initial act of self-isolation never happened at all—or he was better off because it did.

“BY THE WAY—those ‘totem poles’ at the Mystery Shack? Totally WRONG! Way to mix up the Pacific Northwest and the Northwest Plateau, ding-dongs!”

This passage mocks the design of the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls, which does have a totem pole in the background of many scenes. Bill’s superiority about his knowledge of the area, however, falls a bit flat considering the Mystery Shack was never attempting to be accurate in the first place; thus, this passage is representative of both Bill grasping at straws for things to mock about the Mystery Shack and Alex Hirsch mocking himself and the other designers for genuinely making a mistake about the indigenous practices in the area.

“I want you to go…uh…go find my DVD of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I got it at a Best Buy for 5 cents but then lost it in the forest. It’s very important to me. Chop, chop! Clock is ticking, Percival or Sir Talksalot or whatever they call you. I solemnly swore upon mine honor that I wouldst find this ‘Holy Disk’ from yonder countryside, bring glory to my name, and have the crown!”

The contrast between the overdramatic prose of the knight and Bill’s casual, modern way of speaking creates humor, making both the knight and Bill more entertaining through their clear disconnect from one another. Additionally, Bill’s modern references to Monty Python and Best Buy show that he is not constrained by time, even though he records human history in loosely chronological order within the book. Even further, Bill calls the knight Percival—which may be a reference to the Disney animated show Gargoyles, wherein Percival the knight is the founder of the Illuminati. Gargoyles was the only narrative-driven animated show Disney produced before Gravity Falls.

“A geometrical phantom appear’d before me, shaped as a triangle, with a powerful masculine top hat and a beautiful feminine eye. He proclaimed that he was the ‘Spirit of Inspiration,’ and that if I were to simply engage him in a vigorous handshake, he would provide me with the slogan I desired! How could I refuse?”

The diction in this segment conveys that Thurburt is not from the modern world, with abbreviations like “appear’d” and larger vocabulary words highlighting Thurburt’s arrogant but intelligent personality. Bill’s physical description vacillates between masculine and feminine, emphasizing his unknowability and changeability. While Bill is “male” in the technical sense, he uses his appearance to manipulate others as much as his words, using the top hat as a sign of power to earn Thurburt’s trust and respect.

“His composers decided to invent a song designed to be so catchy, so annoying, that I’d leave any brain that heard it. ‘The World is Small Ever After For Always’ was torture—it worked! He’d won this round, but I vowed I’d be back on the screen one day! All evidence of our work was locked in the Inkwell Vault, and the plans for ‘Bill World’ were scrapped.”

This passage is another parody of Disney, clearly satirizing the song “It’s a Small World After All,” the “Disney Vault,” and even Disney World. Bill’s vow to return to the screen, too, creates a meta irony, since Bill’s original appearance was in a Disney animation. This sarcastically posits that, in a way, Disney—or, at least, Disney’s fictional self “Inkwell”—is responsible for Bill’s power over the world, since they allowed him to reenter the human imagination through Gravity Falls in the first place.

“‘How about I mix you a drink to make it up to you?! It’s called the ‘Myoclonic Jerk’ and it can get you loaded in your sleep. Salvador Dali loved ‘em!’ I was flattered but politely declined—I’m not much of a drinker. He said, ‘I’ll convince you tomorrow night!’ Ha—I doubt it!”

This passage foreshadows Bill’s disrespect and overt control of Stanford’s body, given that the next page shows Stanford drunkenly singing and scrawling messages of praise for Bill. While it is possible that Stanford took the drink willingly, his insistence that he tried to stay sober implies that Bill manipulated or outright possessed him into drinking the Myoclonic Jerk. Even the name itself reveals the involuntary nature of Stanford’s drunken night, since a myoclonic jerk is the scientific term for an uncontrollable, unexpected muscle contraction.

“We embraced. I couldn’t believe he was back so soon! He explained that his family reunion had been less than ideal. It seems he and his wife got in a massive fight when she realized he’d forgotten to get her…a Christmas present.”

Stanford and McGucket’s relationship is marked by tragedy throughout. Their closeness drives Bill to torture McGucket and manipulate Stanford away from him, while McGucket forgoes his relationships with others for Stanford, leading to his ultimate isolation and mental collapse. Key to this passage is that McGucket bought Stanford an extremely thoughtful Christmas gift, emphasizing his priorities, even though Stanford did not return the sentiment and broke the snow globe the moment Bill returned to him. McGucket’s failing marriage parallels Stanford’s increasingly dangerous relationship with Bill, and the collapse of both relationships leads to the two characters separating and becoming dangerously isolated for 30 years.