An utterly bizarre conspiracy theory started sweeping around Twitter on Sunday night that Nicola Sturgeon held up The Dandy rather than The Sun.
Sturgeon posed with the newspaper's Scottish edition after it backed an SNP vote in Thursday's election, but came under some criticism for posing with The Sun in the wake of the Hillsborough inquest verdict, which found that 96 football fans were "unlawfully killed" – at odds with the paper's original reporting.
The Sun was also criticised, alongside its sister paper The Times, for not leading with the story last week, like the majority of Britain's national newspapers.
Liverpool blog The Anfield Chat was among the accounts criticising Sturgeon for her decision to pose with the paper.
Any Scottish people out there that support the SNP. This is your leader.
But a crude Photoshop of Sturgeon holding up The Dandy, which stopped being printed four years ago, started to be believed as the real photo.
Q. How do Cybernats limit the damage caused by Sturgeon holding The Sun? A. Photoshop in the Dandy!
It cast a seed of doubt in people's minds, who thought the original Sun photo might be a mainstream media smear designed to damage Sturgeon's reputation.
.@Labour_Celts Well, plenty saying Sun photoshop of Sturgeon and Dandy, what is correct? Hope she hasn't copied Miliband, Brown, Blair.
Notorious Scottish socialist and leader of the Solidarity party, Tommy Sheridan, demanded a statement from Sturgeon on whether she held up The Dandy or The Sun.
I simply don't know 100%. Several friends told me the Scum pic was real. SNP HQ must issue a short statement. https://t.co/Xs7P9rprek
The political editor of the Daily Record insists he was there to witness the scene, but that might not be good enough to convince everyone.
I took a picture of Nicola being pictured holding The Sun if that helps clear anything up...
It will go down as one of the weirdest moments of the Scottish election campaign, and soon attracted work like this on Twitter.
Here's the REAL Nicola Sturgeon photo. Before the WASTEMONSTER MSM ESTABLISHMENT doctored it.
It was the talk of Glasgow at about midnight.
'dandy' is now trending in #Glasgow https://t.co/BEMuEimC8v
People started going through the conspiracy theory archives.
@JamieRoss7 Looks pretty cast iron to me.
Huge, if true.
jet fuel can't melt the dandy
Balustrade Lanyard got involved.
@JamieRoss7
So did Ron.
Pensioners, 72 and 75, refuse to pay £900 Virgin Media porn bill after being mistakenly sent copy of Dandy comic
Sturgeon is yet to respond to this request from journalist Kevin Schofield.
Hi @NicolaSturgeon, trying to get my hands on an absurdly large copy of The Dandy. It stopped printing in 2012 but heard you may have one.