down with the force on the emerald isle

July 10, 2003 9:11 AM

Yoda in Ireland! What do you get when you combine a wizened Jedi master, the fabled Emerald Isle, and perhaps a pint too many of Guiness™? The best vacation pictures ever!
posted by tankboy (12 comments total)

Friends of mine did this w/ a lawn gnome in the 80s - I believe they made the Weekly World news or one of those newspapers. They kidnapped the gnome, then sent the family pictures of the gnome from all over the place. Fun times.
posted by drobot at 9:27 AM on July 10, 2003

The lawn gnome's vacation was featured in this lovely movie.
posted by CunningLinguist at 10:03 AM on July 10, 2003

And then there is World Wide Wagner
posted by bondcliff at 10:07 AM on July 10, 2003

12 pages! That is marvelously obsessive.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 10:07 AM on July 10, 2003

This would explain that disturbance in the Force I've been feeling lately....
posted by ilsa at 10:09 AM on July 10, 2003

I (heart) the Internet.
posted by gramcracker at 10:18 AM on July 10, 2003

The thing with the kidnapped gnome was also one of the plot threads in happyhappyjoyjoy French classic Amelie. Art imitates life (or scriptwriter lifts idea from newspaper).
posted by Damienmce at 10:33 AM on July 10, 2003

Wait a second. Isn't there some fabuleux French movie wherein a lawn decoration of some sort had a similar adventure?
posted by Oddly at 11:10 AM on July 10, 2003

this amelie, it vibrates?
posted by pxe2000 at 12:52 PM on July 10, 2003

I think the lawn gnome vacation is a pretty common gag - I'm not saying that my friends didn't come up with it on their own (they are a clever bunch), but I'm not discounting that lots of gnome-thieves didn't also come up with it on their own, including the Amelie writers.
posted by drobot at 12:58 PM on July 10, 2003

Dismal
posted by Joeforking at 3:48 PM on July 10, 2003

There was a spate of lawn-gnome kidnappings _in France_ in the mid-90's that apparently captured the nation's fancy, and this was probably the specific inspiration for Amelie, though the title character actually fobs the gnome off to an airline attendant or somesuch. This moving, whimsical act which challenges our perceptions and questions the very nature of reality loses its soul when sub-contracted.
posted by user92371 at 9:51 PM on July 17, 2003