Garden Dwarf Journey

The tradition was first recorded in Australia in the 1980s by a man named Phil Tibble. A note appeared in the short news column of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on September 24, 1986: “... the owner of a garden gnome living in an eastern suburb was confused by the loss of her dwarf at the weekend. In its place, a note was found: “Dear Mom, I can not stand loneliness any longer. Going to see the world. Don't worry, I'll be back soon. With love, Bilbo "". ^{[2] [3]}

One of the most famous cases occurred in the spring of 2005 ^[4] , when a group of friends from Redmond , WA ^[5] , took a gnome on a trip to California ^[6] . There the dwarf was photographed with Paris Hilton , and this photo was published in People magazine ^[7] . Also, the gnome was photographed in Hollywood , San Francisco and Las Vegas ^[8] . The dwarf returned to the owner became a hero of national news and was honored with an interview in the Good Morning America program. The owner sold it on eBay for almost $ 400. The gnome was secretly acquired by the owner’s friends, who continued to shoot it during their travels ^[7] .

In 2008, British media reported the story of a garden gnome kidnapping named Murphy. Seven months later, the mistress found him in her garden. Next to the gnome was a photo album with photos of Murphy made in 12 different countries ^{[3] [1]} .

There are many clubs involved in organizing jokes with a gnome. The most famous is the " Front for the Liberation of the Garden Dwarfs " ^[2] .

In 2009, the first travel agency in the world appeared in the Czech Republic, organizing trips of various toys (gnomes, teddy bears and others) ^[2] .

The joke was popularized in several films, including the 2001 film Amelie , where the story about the gnome is an independent, albeit secondary, storyline ^[2] .

In The Sims 3, The Mysterious Mr. Dwarf is a special product found in the catacombs and offered to the character as a reward for the thief’s career. The “mysterious Mr. Dwarf” travels around the player’s home (although no one has ever seen him moving from one place to another) and watches TV, swims, or does a handstand. But when he is in the luggage of the game character, he always stands without moving ^[3] .

In 2004, it was used in the “Where is my Gnome?” Viral marketing campaign for online advertising for the Travelocity travel agency. Since then, the Gnome in Roaming has become the mascot of the agency. In 2013, Dan Hermann and Patrick Brophy created a twitter account based on the Travelocity Gnome in Roaming ^[3] .

In the 2007 Half-Life 2: Episode Two game, one of the tasks requires the player to carry the gnome for almost the entire game, and at the end put him in a rocket, which would allow the gnome to be launched into space. Completing the task allows you to unlock the “Little Man-Rocket” achievement on both the Xbox 360 and PC ^[3] . Another Valve game, Left 4 Dead 2 , uses the same gnome figure for a similar achievement ^[3] .

Churn Labs (a software development company for mobile devices) has created the Gnonstop Gnomes for Android and iOS application. It allows you to add virtual gnomes to photos and share them with friends ^[9] .