Why is there a garden gnome in my yard?

September 29, 2015 4:59 PM

About a week ago someone left a plastic garden gnome in my yard. I'm sure I read something, somewhere, about this being a thing but I can't remember where I saw it. I vaguely remember that I'm supposed to pass it along but maybe I'm supposed to add something to it first. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I'm in Denver, if that matters.
posted by BoscosMom to Home & Garden (12 answers total)

The earliest traveling gnome story I read in the early days of the internet (pre-web) on usenet was just charming as all get out. But it's been used and abused since, just enjoy Mr Gnome.

Basically a nerd with good email contacts (before anyone knew what that was) played a joke on his father-in-law. Swiped the beloved gnome... no one could believe it for a few weeks and then postcards from the "trip" arrived from around the world. Pre-web this was a great practical joke.
posted by sammyo at 5:09 PM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Possibly the work of a garden gnome liberationist or splinter group.
posted by seasparrow at 5:31 PM on September 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

There is an itinerant garden gnome subplot in the film Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Amélie). According to the trivia for this film, "The traveling gnome was inspired by a rash of similar pranks played in England and France in the 1990s. In 1997, a French court convicted the leader of Front de Libération des Nains de Jardins (Garden Gnome Liberation Front) of stealing over 150 gnomes. The idea was later used in an advertising campaign for an Internet travel agency."
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:00 PM on September 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Occam and his razor say one of your neighbors would probably appreciate it if those damned kids would return their garden gnome.
posted by humboldt32 at 6:05 PM on September 29, 2015 [11 favorites]

Stopped by just to say garden gnomes are cute and you should keep it.
posted by lunastellasol at 6:20 PM on September 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

Seconding humboldt; I bet that maybe it was kids pulling a prank who picked it up somewhere else and were wandering around, and finally got sick of carrying it and left it where they happened to be at that moment.

This is the best question I've seen all week, incidentally.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:44 PM on September 29, 2015 [8 favorites]

We had one arrive in our yard several years ago, and it never left. Our nearest neighbors claimed not to be missing any gnomes, so it remains a mystery.
posted by Maarika at 7:08 PM on September 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

If you don't want to provide a forever home for this gnome, I have some rocks and a very dead tree that could totally use a gnome to spiff them up.

... Also, a MeFite traveling gnome project would be fun.
posted by asperity at 7:47 PM on September 29, 2015 [17 favorites]

I don't know gnome protocol, but adding to it and passing it on would be lovely. (It's on your property, so I would imagine it's a 'gift', regift it if that would be entertaining for you.)
posted by Vaike at 7:50 PM on September 29, 2015

If none of your neighbors are missing a gnome, then congrats, you are now the founder of the MeFite Traveling Gnome Society.

That's how this works, right?
posted by erst at 8:56 PM on September 29, 2015 [23 favorites]

Surely the next move would be to post "Found" posters around the place?
posted by ninazer0 at 3:01 AM on September 30, 2015 [4 favorites]

Shhh! You're not supposed to say when you've been elected to the secret cabal ....
posted by mightshould at 4:50 PM on September 30, 2015