# Mobile Leprechaun Mobile Leprechaun is a 2006 local news clip from WPMI-TV in Mobile, Alabama, where Crichton neighborhood residents claimed a leprechaun was hiding in a tree. The report, complete with an amateur sketch and folk theories about crack heads and ancient flutes, became one of YouTube's earliest viral videos. ## Overview Mobile Leprechaun, often called the Crichton Leprechaun or Alabama Leprechaun, is a WPMI-TV news segment about a supposed leprechaun sighting in a tree in the Crichton neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama[1]. The report packed together bewildered eyewitnesses, a child-like pencil sketch of the alleged creature, and residents holding up a metal pipe they described as an ancient flute[2]. The clip is recognizable for two things above all else. The first is the amateur sketch, a crude ballpoint drawing of a hatted figure that looked, in one writer's words, like a blindfolded three-year-old's doodle[2]. The second is the mix of straight-faced local news framing with residents openly speculating that the leprechaun might be a crackhead who climbed up the tree[3]. Together those ingredients turned a two-minute St. Patrick's Day filler piece into one of the earliest YouTube-era viral news moments[4]. ## How It Spread Blogs picked up the video within a week. On March 23rd, 2006, pop culture site The Modern Age ran a post titled "Leprechaun Sketch = Brilliant" focused on the drawing, and the video was mirrored to Break.com the same day[4]. YouTuber markslidesquad posted a hip hop remix called "Leprechaun dimme da gold rap video" on March 24th, 2006, which pulled in more than 2.5 million views over the next six years[4]. Less than three weeks after the broadcast, The New York Times cited the leprechaun clip in an April 3rd, 2006 article about YouTube's rise, questioning whether it might be a hoax[4]. Merch and mainstream television followed. A site called Where Da Gold At launched on April 9th, 2006 selling t-shirts printed with the amateur sketch[4]. On March 18th, 2009, South Park's episode "The Coon" opened with a news report parodying the format[4]. Bill O'Reilly aired the WPMI clip on The O'Reilly Factor on July 29th, 2009, asking his panel whether the report played on racial stereotypes of the Black residents interviewed, a framing anchor Jane Skinner pushed back on by telling him to "lighten up"[1]. Comedy Central kept it in rotation, with Tosh.0 airing a follow-up segment on July 26th, 2011 in which Daniel Tosh interviewed the pipe-flute man from the original piece[4]. The format itself got parodied again on February 21st, 2012 by Key and Peele, who restaged the WPMI report around a Pegasus sighting instead of a leprechaun[4]. By 2014, the original upload sat at close to 24 million views, ranking on Time's list of YouTube's top videos[2]. ## How to Use The clip is typically shared as a St. Patrick's Day post or as shorthand for absurd local news reporting. Remixers often loop the "where da gold at" line or the pipe-as-flute close-up, and the amateur sketch is commonly reused on its own as an image macro or t-shirt design[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Mobile Leprechaun? It is a 2006 WPMI-TV news report about residents of Crichton, Alabama claiming a leprechaun was sitting in a neighborhood tree, which became one of YouTube's first viral videos[5]. ### Where did Mobile Leprechaun come from? The story was filed by reporter Brian Johnson for NBC affiliate WPMI-TV in Mobile, Alabama, after police were called about crowds gathering in the Crichton community[5]. ### What does Mobile Leprechaun mean? Culturally, it is shorthand for absurd hyper-local news reporting, most often invoked around St. Patrick's Day through the amateur sketch and the phrase "where da gold at"[2]. ### How do you use Mobile Leprechaun? People typically share the original WPMI clip, quote the pipe-flute exchange, or reuse the amateur sketch on shirts, memes, and holiday posts[4]. ### Is Mobile Leprechaun still popular? It is a classic viral video that still gets referenced every St. Patrick's Day, with the original upload sitting near 24 million views by 2014[2]. ### When did the Mobile Leprechaun video air? WPMI-TV broadcast the report on St. Patrick's Day 2006, and YouTuber botmib uploaded it to YouTube on March 17th, 2006[4]. ### Was the Mobile Leprechaun real? No. In a 2014 segment on Dallas radio station KTCK's Bob and Dan Show, a local little person known as "Midget Sean" admitted he had dressed in green and climbed the tree, saying "It wasn't a real leprechaun. It was me"[4]. ### Why was the amateur sketch so famous? The crude ballpoint drawing of the leprechaun became the clip's mascot image, was printed on shirts sold through the site Where Da Gold At, and later sold on eBay for just over $1,000 in a WPMI charity auction[5]. ### Did Bill O'Reilly cover the Crichton Leprechaun? Yes. On July 29th, 2009, Bill O'Reilly aired the clip on The O'Reilly Factor and asked his panel whether the WPMI report leaned on racial stereotypes, with anchor Jane Skinner arguing the station played it as light pre-holiday fun[1]. ### What shows have parodied Mobile Leprechaun? South Park's "The Coon" opened with a parody news segment on March 18th, 2009, Tosh.0 aired a follow-up on July 26th, 2011, and Key and Peele restaged the WPMI format around a Pegasus sighting on February 21st, 2012[4]. ### Where is Crichton, Alabama? Crichton is a residential neighborhood inside Mobile, Alabama, where the alleged sighting and WPMI-TV broadcast took place in March 2006[3]. ## References 1. [https://blog.al.com/live/2009/07/tvs_bill_oreilly_asks_is_crich.html]() 2. [https://www.bustle.com/articles/33715-hey-remember-the-mobile-alabama-leprechaun-video-that-inspired-a-thousand-memes]() 3. [https://www.scientifically.blog/mobile-alabama-leprechaun-story]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mobile-leprechaun]() 5. [https://wafflesatnoon.com/crichton-leprechaun/]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/mobile-leprechaun Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library