The Devoted Intellect

In March 2006, hard-hitting local news reporter Brian Johnson’s curiosity was piqued after a number of residents of the largely African-American and impoverished Crichton neighborhood in Mobile, Alabama reported that they had seen a leprechaun (wearing his signature hat of course) staring at them from an area tree. Little did he know that his subsequent news story on these mysterious sightings would take the world by storm, thanks to the omnipotent power of viral video. As news of the Crichton leprechaun spread like wildfire across the nation, hundreds of people poured into the town, hoping to catch a glimpse of the little gold hoarder and maybe, just maybe find his hidden stash of gold. The news clip helpfully included an image of a crude amateur sketch, in the hope that it might spark more sightings of the wily fellow.

Pretty soon, there were long traffic jams as out-of-towners brandishing Irish flutes and torches drove into Mobile to catch a peek. Many quickly found that, if they shone a torch up at the tree, the leprechaun would disappear.

“You just have to keep staring long enough and he’ll show up. I told friends about this and they thought I was nuts but they’ve now seen him too.”

One greedy local area resident who chose to remain anonymous even declared his nefarious intention to uproot the tree.

To date, the original YouTube video of the Crichton Leprechaun has been viewed some 12 million times. Cranky Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly even aired a show about it, to explore the issue of whether the clip was racist. There are now at least two websites dedicated to the Crichton Leprechaun, (WhereTheGoldAt.com and WhereDaGoldAt.com), there is a Facebook fan page and VH1 recognized the video as one of The Greatest Internet Superstars.

Most incredibly, the memorable “amateur sketch” was auctioned on Ebay and sold for more than ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS (which was donated to charity)! Sadly, fans of the artist’s work have been thwarted in their efforts to discover the identity of the artist, who remains as elusive as the Crichton leprechaun himself.