HBO Max sends out mysterious email, everyone makes the same joke

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

Subscribers to an HBO Max mailing list received a strange email from the streaming service on Thursday night, leading to everyone making the same jokes.

As shown in a screenshot posted by writer David Gardner, HBO Max sent out an email around 8:30 p.m. ET titled "Integration Test Email #1." The text shown in the email body read, "This template is used by integration tests only," with no attachments.

So, despite it looking like a straight-up phishing scam, it was a pretty standard test email that most companies would rather stay internal. Turning the mistake into a gleeful opportunity for clever tweets, people jumped on Twitter to make jokes only HBO viewers and creators could.

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Comedian and Cristela creator Cristela Alonzo made the joke and quickly had to remind fans, "It's a joke, everyone. I feel like I have to make it clear on this platform."

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Finally, HBO issued a statement on Twitter, admitting it had "mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening," apologising, then playing the oldest card in the book: blaming the intern.

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The intern! J'accuse! Well, hopefully Integration Test Email #2 goes better and less publicly.