Memo to fans of ABC's Lost: You've been punked. Executive producer Damon Lindelof revealed the prank at a Season 6 press conference today.
"The smoke monster, the polar bear, Walt talking backwards ... We just made stuff up after getting stoned," he said. "We wanted to see what kind of crazy theories viewers would concoct to explain everything."
Lindelof's confession was one of several revelations about the series (see Q&A below).
But devoted fans shrugged off his remarks. "Obviously, Damon Lindelof has been replaced by a parallel dimension impostor, like the fake John Locke at the end of Season 5," said Lostpedia blogger Sam Khruschev. "I'm still confident all 127 mysteries will be resolved by the end of the series."
Viewer Marie Valenzuela was similarly optimistic. "I know the show stopped making sense during Season 2, but by then I was too emotionally invested in seeing Sawyer remove his shirt every other episode. I can't give up now." 
At today's press conference, Lindelof and co-creator Carlton Cuse refused to say which characters would be shirtless in Season 6, but they did tackle a few other questions:
What is the island?
Lindelof: Actually, it's just a portal to other sci-fi shows and movies. For example, after the hydrogen bomb blast, Juliet was transported to the show V, and Charlie and Penny to FlashForward. Other Lost characters have wound up in Vampire Diaries (Boone), Avatar (Ana Lucia) and Supernatural (Jacob).
Who does Charles Widmore work for?
Cuse: In a shocking twist, Season 6 will reveal that Widmore's boss is billionaire Thurston Howell III. Also, the original group of "Others" consisted of a skipper, a professor, a movie star and someone named Mary Ann.
What happened when Benjamin Linus turned the frozen donkey wheel?
Lindelof: The donkey wheel created a disturbance in the space-time continuum that led to the worldwide blackout in ABC's FlashForward.
This post originally appeared at NotTheLATimes.com. Copyright 2010 by Roy Rivenburg.