The Crichton Leprechaun (known alternatively as the Mobile Leprechaun or Alabama Leprechaun) is an internet meme involving a purported leprechaun seen in a tree in Crichton, a neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama. The Crichton Leprechaun rose to international fame in March 2006 following a news report filed at local NBC affiliate WPMI-TV. The video was posted to YouTube on St. Patrick's Day 2006 and fueled media attention to the story and the city. The clip became one of the first YouTube viral videos and was referenced in mainstream media. Merchandise relating to the video and an alleged sketch of the creature also rose in popularity. As of 2016, the video has over 26 million views.
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Background
The video was shot in the Mobile neighborhood of Crichton, located near Toulminville. The community is divided by Spring Hill Avenue into North Crichton and South Crichton, bounded generally by Mobile Street, Dauphin Street and Interstate 65. The leprechaun was purported to be seen in a tree on Le Cren Street near Bay Shore Avenue.
On March 14, 2006, local NBC affiliate WPMI-TV was alerted to crowds gathering in Crichton, and dispatched reporter Brian Johnson to investigate. Johnson had previously received numerous calls about possible leprechaun sightings and questions about it from friends at a barbershop and his church. "Things sort of snowballed" when the crew arrived, anchor Scott Walker later recalled, with multiple people claiming to have seen a leprechaun in a tree. Crichton resident Nina Thomas-Brown submitted a crudely drawn sketch of the supposed leprechaun. Among those who were interviewed was a woman who opined that instead of a leprechaun, "It could be a crackhead." Another interviewee, Demarco Morrissette, claimed Irish ancestry and showed off a "special leprechaun flute," that he claimed dated thousands of years old. Morrissette became known as the "Flute Man" due to his appearance in the report. "I actually saw what was sketched on paper," said Johnson at the time. "Some people say it is a shadow from some of the branches being too close and that there is moss on the tree that could explain it. Certainly I don't believe it's a leprechaun!"
The piece was aired twice, once on the nightly newscast and again on WPMI's morning newscast. That version, introduced by Scott Walker and a female news anchor, was the broadcast that went viral.
Media coverage
The video was posted to YouTube on March 17, 2006 by user botmib and soon became a viral sensation, attracting millions of views. The video was one of the site's first to attract viral attention, further propelling the site into public consciousness.
The report received attention from MSNBC, radio personality Howard Stern and received a piece in The New York Times, in which columnist Virginia Heffernan called the clip "a local Alabama news segment that seems too hilarious to be real." Reporter Brian Johnson was interviewed by radio stations in Dallas and Los Angeles following the report. Political commentator Bill O'Reilly of Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor debated whether or not the video purported racial stereotypes. The video was also lampooned on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, Key and Peele, and South Park. Tosh.0 featured the clip in a "Web Investigation" segment, with host Daniel Tosh visiting Crichton and interviewing those involved with the video. Tosh referred to the clip as "the Gone with the Wind of Internet videos. It's old. It's famous. And it makes the South look terrible." Many quotes and elements of the video, most notably the alleged leprechaun sketch, were printed on T-shirts, mousepads and other merchandise. WPMI-TV later auctioned off the leprechaun sketch for $1,100 on eBay, with the proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life.
The clip continues to receive media attention annually on St. Patrick's Day. Walker now works for WDSU-TV in New Orleans and has written on his website about the report: "It's fun to be part of something that's talked about so much for so long, although some of my co-workers are probably really tired of it. But I never get tired of hearing about it."