Bullworth is a false myth that spread throughout the Grand Theft Auto community following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV.
Timeline[]
Stock Footage Easter Egg[]
The rumor began in 2008 with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, which introduced in-game TV shows that players could watch in their safehouses. These shows were pre-rendered .bik video files played as a video layer on the in-game TV models. One such show, I'm Rich, featured stock footage from various Rockstar titles, including Bully and other GTA games from the 3D Universe, such as GTA San Andreas.
Just as the Los Santos International Airport runway is repurposed as a NASCAR-style track—named the Patriot 500 Speedway—in a commercial shown before the TV show begins, a segment from the Bully: Scholarship Edition promotional trailer is used within the show to depict an unnamed and unidentified school.
"Bully Trivia" Vandalism[]
In 2009, an unregistered user edited the Bully Trivia article on Bully Wiki, claiming that townspeople in New Coventry will mention someone named Starkweather and their latest film—a reference to Lionel Starkweather from Manhunt, Rockstar North's survival horror game set within the same universe as the 3D GTA titles. This supposed "Easter egg" was not rebutted until decades later.
A year later, a registered user named Spaceghost212 added another claim to the Bully Trivia article, stating that advertisements for the ZIP clothing brand from the GTA series could be seen in Old Bullworth Vale—an obviously false claim. However, both pieces of misinformation remained untouched on the Bully Wiki, likely going unnoticed by staff at the time, and were eventually accepted as fact by the community.
All this speculation led many players to believe that Bully and GTA shared the same universe for nearly two decades—despite several contradicting factors:
- Background characters, clothing brands, companies, and corporations from Bully have never appeared in GTA—with the sole exception of a single piece of stock footage.
- The town of Bullworth has never been made canon in any subsequent Grand Theft Auto title since its creation by Rockstar Vancouver.
- Bully (Canis Canem Edit) was neither written nor developed by Rockstar North, the British studio behind GTA and Manhunt—it was simply published by the same American parent company.
- Rockstar Games and the now-defunct Rockstar Vancouver never officially confirmed any connection, unlike the well-documented 3D Universe-Manhunt link, which was supported by official lore and promotional material. A shared universe is generally confirmed through promotional material from both franchises, in-game dialogue, shared brands, direct mentions of story characters and in-game celebrities by name, as well as common vehicles, car manufacturers, city names, and other 3D Universe features and lore. The strongest example of this "rule" is the Manhunt series, which takes place after Grand Theft Auto III in the timeline, with the chronology progressing steadily up to 2007.
- Bully features its own parody of Coca-Cola called Beam Cola, while the 3D Universe’s equivalent is eCola—first introduced in GTA: Vice City Stories that same year, though briefly mentioned in GTA: San Andreas. The Oil Spill fuel company, seen in Bullworth Town, is unique to its world and has never appeared in a GTA game since. Another distinct brand is Brown Chocolate, found throughout Bullworth Town—where we would normally expect to see CANDYBOX, the well-established candy company from the 3D Universe canon.
- Character dialogue—mainly from Parker Ogilvie, Miss Danvers’ PA announcements, and Jimmy Hopkins during the mission Nutcrackin’—explicitly references real-world locations like New York City and Hollywood, rather than their in-universe equivalents, Liberty City and Vinewood. Plus, with New York and California also being featured in the Geography Class, it strongly implies that Liberty City (Liberty State) and San Andreas do not exist in the Bully universe.
- The name 'Hollywood' is also used in concept art for Manhunt, rather than the in-universe Vinewood—which wouldn’t appear until GTA: San Andreas, unreleased at the time. Starkweather’s background as a Hollywood film director was later retconned with the release of Manhunt 2, a game that adopted San Andreas location names to fit the established canon unlike its predecessor.
Vehicle Assets and Sequel Jokes[]
The only in-universe "connection" to Bully lore or media found within the GTA franchise is the Vinewood movie Sequel II, featuring GTA IV celebrity Billy Blue—a reference to Sequel: The Movie, which was advertised at the movie theater in Bully. However, both fictional movies are simply literal sequel jokes and unrelated to one another.
Debunked[]
The false rumor about the supposed Starkweather quote was debunked in 2023 through a collaboration between GTA Wiki editors and the Bully subreddit community. By datamining the game and reviewing all pedestrian dialogue from New Coventry, they confirmed that no audio files referenced any GTA or Manhunt city, character, or event.
The rampant falsification of evidence began in 2006, back when the 3D Universe was still the current canon and the HD Universe hadn’t yet been introduced with the second reboot of the series. Later, in GTA IV and GTA V, some references seemed to suggest that Bully exists within the HD Universe.
The Bully article on the GTA Wiki used to list the following pieces of evidence—some sourced from the Bully Wiki—in support of the popular fan theory:
Occasionally, a female pedestrian in Bullworth may mention Liberty City in her dialogue. Rarely, townspeople in New Coventry can be heard discussing the "latest Starkweather film"—a possible reference to Lionel Starkweather, the main antagonist of Manhunt and failed Vinewood director, known for his pre-snuff movie career. Vehicles resembling those from GTA: Vice City appear during Bully's Shop Class. Bullworth Academy is also mentioned in a segment of the I’m Rich TV show in GTA IV, where it’s depicted as the boarding school attended by celebrity Jill Von Crastenburg. Interestingly, in the mission Final Interview, Niko Bellic’s fake résumé originally stated he attended Bullworth Academy; however, this was later changed to Bulford Academy in Patch 1.14.
However, none of the so-called evidence listed above actually holds up well under serious scrutiny.
- The female pedestrian in question is Ms. Isaacs, who only mentions having moved from a big city to Bullworth—Liberty City is never named.
- No pedestrians in New Coventry reference Lionel Starkweather or his films. This claim was fabricated and added to the Bully trivia page on the Bully Wiki by an anonymous user in 2009.
- A number of vehicle-related assets were provided by Rockstar North’s technical direction team to Rockstar Vancouver as a starting point for the development of Bully. Although Rockstar North wasn’t directly involved in the game’s development and wasn’t credited for the reused code, two of their vehicle models and textures were repurposed and edited to portray two unnamed vehicles featured during the Auto Shop class in Bully's independent universe.
- Six years later, Rockstar Vancouver reused more Rockstar North vehicle assets and handling from GTA IV to create NPC vehicles in Max Payne 3, this time as part of a Rockstar Studios collab for Remedy Entertainment's franchise.
- The Bullworth mention in GTA IV is false. While trailer footage of Bully: Scholarship Edition is briefly reused in a CNT segment in GTA IV, the school is not mentioned by name. The footage is used to depict one of several unnamed boarding schools Jill Von Crastenburg may have attended. The developers likely reused the clip due to the lack of other boarding school assets in Rockstar’s media library, not as a canonical connection.
- Niko Bellic’s fake résumé in Final Interview never referenced Bullworth Academy. The claim that it was changed in a patch to Bulford Academy is false, as GTA IV never had a Patch 1.14. In truth, Niko’s résumé listed him as having attended Bulford University in England from version 1.0 onward. This misinformation originated on the GTA Wiki (at the time it was named "GTA Wikia" under a different staff, a poorly moderated period referred to by their current staff and collaborators as the 2010 "GTA Wikia" era) and spread due to citogenesis—the process by which false claims gain credibility through repeated citation.
- This piece of information was added on 31 July 2010 by username "QuietSuffer". However, the original edit simply stated that "Bulford Academy could be a reference to Bullworth Academy" - an usermade misinterpretation (Bullworth Academy does not offer a law degree, and is located in New England, USA). This information was soon changed by another user days later, replaced with the correct information - Bulford University refers to Oxford University.
- The actual piece of misinformation was added on 4 December 2010 by user Jackass2009 as a side note, falsely claiming that the game originally used "Bullworth Academy" name on the resumé and was changed after the release of a "patch 1.4" - a non-existent patch. This information was not removed nor verified by the former GTA Wikia-era staff.
- This false trivia was kept buried in the article for the mission Final Interview unnoticed for a decade until this piece of Wikia-era misinformation was reported to the current GTA Wiki staff, who verified all day-one versions of the game and confirmed the claim to be false.
Many of Bully's pedestrian quotes can now be found in various YouTube videos.
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