Psst: Conan's Super Mario backdrop was a hoax

Show of hands: Who thought that screen-grab was for real?

An image mash-up where Conan O'Brien's new "Tonight Show" set was put against a Super Mario backdrop spread like crazy to video game and TV news sites and across social media networks.

Many assumed it was a direct screen shot from "Mushroom Kingdom" and that somebody on the "Tonight Show" production team literally stole their set design from the game. There were rumors that O'Brien might even mention it on tonight's show (sources say he didn't).

The vid game look-alike was actually the work of blogger Tim Bierbaum at SeriousLunch.com, who created the effect in Photoshop after noticing that O'Brien's backdrop looked familiar.

"I just noticed how the shapes behind him look like Mario levels," he said. "It's quite clear, you see: the end of stage flag from Mario 1 is there right next to a keyhole from Mario world."

Bierbaum didn't seem to intend for everybody to take his post quite so seriously (and for that matter neither did I).

"It's pretty funny," he added, "I'm glad it's inspired some discussion."