HBO Max sends subscribers bizarre 'integration test' email, blames 'the intern'

HBO Max just sparked the biggest mystery since Mare of Easttown: why did subscribers get an unexplained "integration test" email out of the blue?

Users of the streaming service on Thursday suddenly received a bizarre email with the subject line "Integration Test Email #1." Inside was just a one sentence body: "This template is used by integration tests only." And that was it.

Subscribers quickly turned to Twitter to voice confusion, and there were plenty of jokes about what some imagined must be the title of HBO's next hit series, while director James Gunn hoped this all could be some strange viral marketing for his own upcoming show. With the memes flooding in, HBO Max provided an explanation. To paraphrase former President Donald Trump, the intern who accidentally did an integration test email apologizes.

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"We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening," HBO Max said on Twitter. "We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we're helping them through it."

So there you have it. Alternatively, perhaps after clearing up the confusion about how HBO Max was actually different from HBO Go and HBO Now, the company felt compelled to leave everyone scratching their heads in an all new way.