Leprechaun

"You insult me — me who used to give courses in advanced Leprechaunology."

— Finian McLonergan, Finian's Rainbow

Leprechauns are creatures from Oireland, who are often portrayed completely unlike the Irish legends on them.

Irish myth agrees on these basic points: They're the size of children and favour the colour green (when they don't wear red). They have red hair and green eyes — and if you have red hair and green eyes you may be a descendant of the Fey folk yourself! Leprechauns can become invisible, but if you happen to see one, catch him quick and make him tell you where his pot of gold is hidden (they all have one...for some reason). If you take your eye off the Leprechaun for even a moment though, he'll vanish again and you'll almost certainly never find him. The Leprechaun is a tricky creature and will do his very best to wriggle out of showing you his gold, but you'll always find it at the end of a rainbow. He isn't necessarily malicious but he doesn't appreciate being bullied either, so if you get a wish from a Leprechaun, Be Careful What You Wish For because they may well pull a Jackass Genie on you.

They are presumed to be flawed offspring of The Fair Folk with some kind of genetic defect because they're all male. They tend to work as shoemakers for the rest of The Fair Folk and have a fascination with shining and repairing shoes. And if you pay a Leprechaun to shine your shoes, those shoes will always remain shiny, and they will always bring you good luck. If you steal the match of a pair of shoes they're shining, they'll be compelled to search for it to finish the job.

In fiction, they usually have a green hat, often with a buckle and/or a shamrock on it. Despite their ridiculous appearance, their magic is extremely powerful, so it's best not to anger them. Like all Fey Folk, they have a weakness to wrought iron, which they cannot cast spells upon. They are associated with four-leaved-clovers, although whether clover gives them power or takes it away is Depending on the Writer.

The most remarkable thing about Leprechauns is that they are practically the only Irish fairies you see in fiction (with the possible exception of the Banshee and the Headless Horseman, who are more often lumped with The Undead), despite hundreds of other types. Ironically this overuse (and Flanderization) has led to Leprechauns pretty much becoming a Discredited Trope in Ireland itself (outside of tourist gift shops, that is).

Our Fairies Are Different is the Super-Trope. See Leprechaun Fiction for works in which they play a central role.

---

Examples

Advertising

• Lucky the Leprechaun, the mascot of Lucky Charms cereal. To him, his cereal is his pot of gold (which kids are always chasing him over) and he uses magic over rainbows to create and change the cereal's colorful marshmallows.
• In this commercial, leprechauns follow a rainbow to the Keebler tree and find Rainbow Chips Deluxe cookies.
• The mascot of Notre Dame "Fighting Irish" football team is a tough-looking leprechaun putting his dukes up.

Comic Books

• Medieval Spawn/Witchblade #2 (June 1996):
  Stalker: "I hate leprechauns. They give the Irish a bad name, with all that old crap about fairy rings and the mystic land of Erin and that bloody ridiculous accent... Hundreds of years from now, I bet people'll still be expecting us Micks to ponce around eating spuds and waiving [sic] four-leafed clovers, and saying "Top o' the mornin' to ye'". Two words, Katarina: Not me.
  • Next page he stomps on the leprechaun.
• This trope would not be complete without the leprechauns in Gold Digger, who started out as The Theme Park Version - With Tanks. By the time they make a Heel–Face Turn, they've moved on to "Humongous" Mecha, like "Vaultron", made out of combining robot shoes. And now things have proceeded to Ninja Pirate Leprechauns (yes) with a Magitek Mobile-Suit Human of their own...
• The title character of Fiddle O'Diddle is a leprechaun who is constantly trying to keep his pot of gold safe from the desperate Muldoon.
• In The DCU, the Irish superhero Jack O'Lantern, of the Global Guardians, had a leprechaun sidekick.
  • There was also a Green Lantern story that said they were Alien Fair Folk descended from members of the Guardians of The Universe that settled on Earth.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch has dealt with leprechauns a time or two. Other than slightly pointed ears and a thick Irish accent, they can easily pass for human. Heather O'Malley is one that tries to come between her and Harvey.
• In Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, leprechauns are depraved, ultraviolent, stereotypically Irish, little monsters. Leprechaun fighting is the magical equivalent of dogfighting, and Wormwood thinks that they probably deserve worse.
• In Wonder Woman Vol 1 #14 Diana winds up in "Shamrock Land" while chasing the Gentleman Killer and ends up having to contend with leprechauns too.
• The antepenultimate issue of Forgotten Realms features a leprechaun as its villain. He uses his magical powers to cheat people at cards.

Films — Live-Action

• The Disney Channel film The Luck of the Irish has leprechauns who fire magical blasts at each other, live for centuries, and shrink down to doll-size if their lucky talismans (which allow them to pass as human) are stolen.
  • And Tim Omundson.
• Darby O'Gill and the Little People features leprechauns as at the titular little people.
• In the movie Behind the Waterfall the boy Tommy was sure that the old man Mr Conners was one. Unfortunately for him, he was eventually proven wrong.
• There is even a Leprechaun series of horror films, starring Willow's Warwick Davis, currently up to eight entries. Including Leprechaun 4: IN SPACE! Followed by Leprechaun in the Hood and Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood.
• 1995 movie Leapin Leprechauns and it sequel Spellbreaker Secret Of The Leprechauns, as the title implies, follow all the basic lore on leprechauns and fairies.
• In Muppets Most Wanted, Leprechauns are the security guards at the Irish National Bank. Unfortunately, they were watching the Muppets' performance when Constantine and Dominic broke into the bank. They later expressed relief that the thieves weren't interested in their pot of gold.

Literature

• The Artemis Fowl Series' Leprechauns are nothing more than an underground (literally) police force: L.E.P. (Lower Elements Police) Recon. Lampshaded, when Short remembers the embarrassing uniforms they used to wear centuries ago that led to their often-attributed attire. The plot of the first book is basically a kid catching a leprechaun for her gold, run through a filter of Die Hard.
• In the The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids story The Interlude of Jenny Everywhere, Jenny tracks down her old friend, the Lurigadawne of Tipperary, an authentic specific Leprechaun of pre-20th century Irish folklore. He's identified as a member of The Fair Folk and the Little People. In an aversion of the modern stereotypes, his jacket is red, and he's not a shoemaker by trade, although he's capable of crafting magic shoes if called upon.
• The fourth Everworld book has a Running Gag where Christopher claims that, in the Fantasy Kitchen Sink that they're trapped in, they'll be running into leprechauns any minute. It culminates on the very last page, where Nidhoggr sends them to steal his treasure back from the fairies.
• "Tales of the White Street Society" by Grady Hendrix is a horror take on this. The Pseudopod horror podcast has a dramatic reading of it here. (Warning: not safe for work!)
• The novel American Gods claims that Leprechauns are actually tall, and that the whole "little people" thing was a bit of an Irish joke. The one leprechaun in the book, Mad Sweeney, is described as a big, barrel-chested, rough-housing drunk.
• Harry Potter had Leprechauns as the Irish World Cup Quidditch Team mascots, who are incredibly incendiary toward the opposing team. Starting with pointing and laughing, then culminating in giving the other team the finger and resulting in the other team's mascots (more or less harpies) kicking the shit out of them. Yup. Also, they could apparently create gold at will... but it vanished in a few hours.
• A very dark version shows up briefly, but memorably, in Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber series.
• In the story "Crash" in The Modern Faes Guide To Surviving Humanity, a Wall Street trader meets an old man in a pub who tells of how he found a leprechaun in 1937 and was conned into accepting three wishes instead of the leprechaun's meager fortune—every wish backfired horribly. Soon after, she follows a rainbow to the end of Wall Street and discovers the leprechaun, who turns out to be her boss at the trading firm; he's been rebuilding his wealth since the '30s. Indeed, the trader demands gold instead of wishes, but makes out with millions in bearer bonds instead. Unfortunately, a leprechaun's fortune is magically tied to that of his country, and the last time this particular leprechaun had his wealth stolen was in 1929...
• The antagonists of Forest of Boland Light Railway are referred to as leprechauns, but they are actually goblins or orcs.
• Leprechauns are detailed in The Spiderwick Chronicles Field Guide, which describes them as diligent cobblers, leatherworkers, and tailors. Because other fairies employ them for those kinds of jobs, they often have large amounts of gold that they go to great lengths to keep them out of human hands.
• One of the students in the Griezelklas series of books by Tais Teng is a leprechaun. He's normal-sized, and basically one of The Fair Folk—he possesses some magic abilities, and lives with his family inside a hillside. He's not particularly malevolent unless you get on his bad side, and is also best friends with the dwarf student.
• Brazilian author Carolina Munhóz wrote a trilogy about Leprechauns, called Trindade Leprechaun (Leprechaun Trinity), each book’s title starting with “Por um toque de” (“For/By a touch of”). In her works, they are physically identical to humans, living and hiding themselves among them in modern society. Their morality also varies from individual to individual, just like human morality. They exist in both genders, and the protagonist is a female Leprechaun, Emily O’Connell. She still has characteristics of the traditional versions: she's a Fiery Redhead and her family runs a (high fashion) shoe company. A common trait is that they’re extremely lucky and can recognize other like them. They also exist outside Ireland: there are Leprechauns of several nationalities, including Brazilian ones. The second book reveals that there’s a Magical Society called Leprechaun Trinity. The third book reveals that they can develop other powers, like teletransportation, telekinesis and a Spider-Sense.
• In "The Gypsies in the Wood", an in-universe series of children's books (created by an English writer for an English publisher) features a thoroughly stereotypical leprechaun named Seamus O'Short. The Irish protagonist, Kate Reed, is thoroughly unimpressed.

Live-Action TV

• As a Running Gag, Leprechauns are the only fantasy monster that doesn't exist in the Buffyverse.
• The Honey, I Shrunk the Kids spin-off TV series included an episode that subverted Leprechauns twice; the first time, by featuring a fake Leprechaun who turned out to be a midget crook with special effects, who was unmasked by Wayne. Then, just as the Scooby-Doo mystery was unveiled, REAL Leprechauns appeared, who looked NOTHING like the stereotype, and instead looked like humans in black coats, speaking in a genuine Irish accent. They punished the crooked impersonator, then responded to Wayne's inquiry as to the true nature of their technology by disappearing with the message "It's Magic!"
• Bewitched has an episode with a visiting leprechaun. Oddly enough, he's from Darrin's family rather than Samantha's.
• The Twilight Zone (1985):
  • In "The Little People of Killany Woods", Liam O'Shaughnessy initially mistakes the Little Green Men who have landed in Killany Woods to repair their ship for the Little People.
  • In "The Leprechaun-Artist", a Leprechaun named Shawn McGool is taking a vacation in the United States when he is spotted by Buddy, J.P. and Richie. After they capture him, he has to grant them Three Wishes.
• An episode of Moonlighting, of all things, featured a woman who thought she was a leprechaun. Not true, but kind of fun while it lasted.
• Encountered several times on Charmed, first being saved from the Monster of the Week, then in later appearences assisting in the good fight, usually by Buffing the luck of the heroes. Their duty is to spead luck around, both good and bad.
• Wizards of Waverly Place has the Leprechaun Grill, where the staff are just dressed up as leprechauns, and they keep one actual leprechaun in a box. Because Corporate demanded they had one to make it look real.
• Finster from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, although technically an alien, is intended to be one despite his vaguely canine appearance. This is backed up by his Zyuranger counterpart being called "Pleprechaun".
• The TV miniseries Magical Legend of the Leprechauns features both the traditional leprechauns (sometimes referred to as solitary fairies) and the winged Trooping Fairies. The leprechauns are your traditional redheaded green-suited drunken pranksters and the fairies are elegant guardians of nature (if a bit snooty).
• The Aquabats! Super Show!: The titular antagonist of the episode "Überchaun" is a super-powerful leprechaun who insists he's not one. After Crash accidentally hits him on the head, he forces The Aquabats! to accomplish three challenges or he'll shrink them and keep them as trophies.
• An episode of Bonanza had Hoss encounter what he's sure is leprechauns. They were just circus midgets who decided they no longer wanted to deal with their manager.
• American Gods (2017): Mad Sweeney claims to be one despite him and Shadow both being big guys and lacking an accent. He's got a lot of the traits in common including red hair and doing tricks with gold coins. He's also got the stereotypical Irish traits including drinking, loving to fight, and has a hell of a temper.
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: A pair of twin leprechauns (one good, one evil, is course) were monsters of the week in one episode. Tugging on one's beard made it disappear temporarily.
• The BBC Saturday Morning Kids’ Show Live And Kicking had two leprechauns named Mr Sage and Mr Onion as the obligitory puppet mascots from the third season in 1995 (replacing a CGI cat head). 1998 added a female leprechaun named Shamrock.

Newspaper Comics

• Launcelot McSnoyd in Barnaby.
• The Far Side: A young boy catches a leprechaun, who comments he's "never actually been all that lucky." And considering he's got an eyepatch and hook-hand, he's probably being honest enough.

Pinball

• One appears on the "Pot of Gold" table in Epic Pinball.

Professional Wrestling

• WWE has been trotting out a "leprechaun" named Hornswoggle on its programming for some time now. He's currently being heavily featured since being recently revealed to be the illegitimate son of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon. Yes, folks, this did take home the 2008 WrestleCrap Gooker Award for worst storyline of the year. Oh, and it turns out Hornswoggle wasn't Mr. McMahon's son after all. And he was the last Cruiserweight champ.
  • It wasn't that bad at first. When Finlay was working as a heel, a green light began to eminate from beneath the ring. He lifted up the apron, and a leprechaun scrambled out and began attacking his opponent before scurrying back to his hiding space (sometimes tossing Finlay a shilelagh). He was only referred to as "That Little Bastard". This was repeated in every match, until the revelation came that he was really (not really) Vince's bastard son.
  • Of course he's hugely over with the live crowds to the point when, on the 1/25/10 episode of RAW, Shawn Michaels stated Hornswoggle had the week off, the crowd booed. LOUDLY.
• Believe it or not, there was yet another pro wrestling example... The Dungeon of Doom, a stable filled with really bad "monster"-type characters in WCW, had a member named Braun the Leprechaun, who was about 4 feet tall and went around biting people. He lasted about a month.
• Erin O'Grady in the promotion All Pro Wrestling, better known as WWE's Crash Holly.

Tabletop Games

• The tabletop RPG Changeling: The Dreaming has the Clurichaun, mischief makers with ties to Ireland who hate to be called leprechauns. In mythology, cluricahauns are similar to leprechauns...but drunk.
• Leprechauns were included in the 1st and 2nd editions of the Dungeons & Dragons game, where they were detailed as a mischievous strain of halflings with some pixie blood in their veins. They disappeared from the system when 3E came out before returning in 4th Edition. The Basic/Expert/etc system, in contrast, detailed their role in fairy society in Tall Tales of the Wee Folk.
• An old GURPS supplement suggests that they are a race specially created after a wizard feud left a powerful spellcaster, having previously developed a taste in expensive clothing, with an inability to wear the same article of clothing twice. The suggestion furthers that there were other races, each dedicated to creating a separate type of clothing, of which leprechauns are the only one remaining.
• Pathfinder has them. They check off most of the traditional boxes; small fairy people who like a drink, love gold, wear green, and are tricky without being overly malicious. They have magical abilities (mostly illusions), and can't grant wishes but might claim they can if there's a chance of swindling some gold out of someone.
• In Smash Up, the highest-power minion of the Tricksters faction is one; with an effect that destroys any lower-power minion of an opposing faction played after it on the same base.

Theatre

• In Finian's Rainbow, Og the leprechaun has been gradually turning into a mortal ever since Finian took his crock of gold. After Three Wishes are made on the gold, it turns to dross.

Video Games

• The Halflings of Age of Wonders use Leprechauns as their most powerful unit, which are actually rate the status-they're naturally invisible on the world map, have respectable melee abilities and a ranged attack, and are exceedingly frustrating to attack due to their superior defensive abilities. Oh, and they do magical damage, which is the hardest damage type to get protection against.
• DC Universe Online is somewhat of a subversion, since all leprechaun activities are actually Mr. Mxyzptlk.
• Extreme Ghostbusters: Ultimate Invasion (a Playstation Light Gun Game based on the cartoon) have leprechauns as one of the four recurring enemy variants. They're the only enemies that doesn't have ranged attacks, instead moving around the screen at rapid speed and trying to whack the players with their cane.
• In Heroes of Might and Magic III, most of the maps feature a spot where a leprechaun dances in perpetuity (you can even hear the music), to which the player can go to shake the guy down for cash once per game week. One wonders why he doesn't move along after awhile.
  • Heroes IV had them as actual troops... who vanish into their hats when they die. Often cited as the most useless creature in the game in contrast to the above, despite their ability to cast the "Fortune" spell (hey, at least peasants pay taxes).
• Leprechaun 1982 is about avoiding a leprechaun while trying to get to his pot of gold. You can increase the end-of-game score by touching trees and changing their colours.
• The Lep's World games have you play as a leprechaun on a quest to get back his gold. Though you can also choose to play as other characters.
• In NetHack, leprechauns can be Goddamned Bats because they steal your gold and then instantly teleport away, unless you know the easy way to keep them from teleporting: don't have any gold.
• Nightmare Busters have the players as a leprechaun who goes around zapping evil creatures with his magic.
• In Rogue, also appear in Nethack's predecessor, Leprechauns steal your gold and instantly disappear, but leave behind large amounts of gold if killed (the trick is to engage them with ranged weapons).
• Leprechauns where one of the many different types of Fairies you could collect in Shining the Holy Ark. You would release them just before a battle and if the enemy came up from the ground they would cause damage dependent on how many you've caught.
• In Tales of Middle Earth, the predecessor of Tales of Maj'Eyal, they not only steal your gold and teleport away, but they also breed explosively. So if you happen to encounter them on a level, run.
• The Fey faction in the Warlords Battlecry series has leprechauns as one of the basic units. They have a weak attack, but they're easy to spam, and each one increases your gold income.

Webcomics

• In The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, leprechauns are always responsible for sending Wonderella and Wonderita to different times and places as the they try to get the leprechauns' gold.
• In The Order of the Stick, Thog dresses as a leprechaun (for some unexplained reason) while escaping from Cliffport with Elan.
• Homestuck confirmed that the green-skinned Felt are from a homosexual species known as leprechauns. To make it even more absurd, the symbols of their various forms of romance are based on Lucky Charms.

Web Originals

• Liam The Leprechaun. Originally a Wicked Awesome Films character, he made a guest appearance in The Annoying Orange episode Luck o' the Irish, trying to get his pot of gold back from Orange in exchange for three wishes. Liam was so popular that he was Transplanted to the cast of The Annoying Orange and even got a series of his own.
• The League of S.T.E.A.M. encounter one in their award-winning webisode, "Fool's Gold".
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbvaSm1OSuM Leprechauns in France]

Western Animation

• The Looney Tunes Porky Pig short "The Wearing of the Grin" has Porky spending the night at a castle said to be the home of leprechauns. Naturally the leprechauns are real, and paranoid that Porky is looking for their pot of gold.
• The very last Droopy cartoon is titled "Droopy Leprechaun" and revolves around Droopy being mistaken for one.
• A leprechaun has made a couple of appearances in The Simpsons, most notably "Treehouse of Horror XII" segment "Hex and the City", in which Homer has to capture it to break the gypsy curse. It also tells Ralph Wiggum to burn things in "This Little Wiggy". In a St. Patrick's Day parade that turns into a massive brawl, two leprechauns (one in green, one in orange) are seen enthusiastically beating seven kinds of crap out of each other.
• The South Park epic "Imaginationland" begins with Cartman betting Kyle that leprechauns are real; Kyle loses.
• Dez, the main character of Wishfart, is one. However, he's a lanky teenager with pretty much no stock leprechaun qualities except for the ability to grant wishes (which he does by shooting a rainbow from his pointer finger). He's very proud of how atypical he is and dislikes being pigeonholed with the usual leprechaun stereotypes. His parents Clooney and Emer, as well as his Evil Uncle Phil, are also very human-like leprechauns whose identities are only given away by their Irish accents, love of gold, and tendency to hide to avoid granting wishes. On the other hand, leprechaun enforcer Finnuala literally has the job of making sure all other leprechauns are acting as they traditionally/stereotypically should (no surprise that she and Dez dislike each other).
• An episode of Moville Mysteries featured a leprechaun who at first seems good, but is later revealed to have a habit of turning those who try to steal his gold into wood.
• Martin Mystery also once featured an evil leprechaun. It Was Once a Man that found a cursed gold coin that brought amazing luck but made one obsessed with it before transforming them into a leprechaun that jealously coveted it.
• In one episode of The Littles, Dinky Little wants to find leprechauns, and his young cousins offer him "tips" to make fun of him. During the course of following their advice, Dinky is caught by an Irishman looking for leprechauns, mistaking his prize for one.
• The transformation teacher in Winx Club, professor Wizgiz, is a leprechaun through and through.
• In an episode of Johnny Bravo, Johnny tried desperately to kiss a leprechaun named Barney Stone because, due to a silly misunderstanding, he thought it would make him irresistible to chicks. After an extensive chase, Johnny caught Barney, who granted his wish in exchange for not being kissed... which led to Johnny being swarmed by poultry.
• On The Fairly Oddparents, Timmy meets a leprechaun in one episode. It tells Wanda (in rhyme) that Cosmo bet her in a contest.
  • In another episode, he encounter a trio of rough and scruffy leprechauns who wanted their pot of gold back after Cosmo took it to give to Mr Crocker who thought he was a leprechaun after Crocker switched from hunting fairies to leprechauns. It's a Long Story.
• In DuckTales (1987), "Luck 'O' the Ducks", When Scrooge and 'the gang' went to Ireland. These leprechauns really didn't like thieves or intruders, and almost dumped the group into their snake pit; fortunately, when the king found out that they had been invited by another leprechaun (even though the guy was a Snake Oil Salesman that none of them liked) he figured he really couldn't do that. (Curiously, this group of leprechauns did include females.)
• Used in an episode of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers where they meet one who asks for their help to defeat a banshee.
• A cartoon featuring The Beatles had the band go to Ireland and meet a rare female leprechaun. They perform "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" for her.
• In Superman: The Animated Series, Mr. Mxyzptlk claims that all the old legends about leprechauns (and genies, imps, and similar creatures) on Earth were actually about him.
• An episode of ¡Mucha Lucha! was actually about an evil leprechaun named Rick O'Shea who constantly pestered the main character because his name sounded exactly the same and it was ruining his evil reputation.
• An episode of Extreme Ghostbusters involved a wicked leprechaun hunting down the descendants of the men who imprisoned him to recover the gold they took from him to feed immigrants.
• Michael was the Smurf Forest's resident leprechaun in The Smurfs (1981). Also Greedy briefly became one in a Season 9 episode.
• Fanboy and Chum Chum get a Lucky Expy in the episode "Lucky Chumps"
• In an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, Plucky and Hampton (who are selling novelty shop items door to door) help drive a nasty banshee out of a castle belonging to a clan of leprechauns. (In a curious twist, most of the episode focuses on the banshee, the leprechauns only showing up in person at the end.)
• A Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon had Caspar go to Ireland where he met a little boy who was sure Casper was a leprechaun. Casper decided to play along since at least the boy wasn't running away screaming like most people.
• An Inspector Gadget episode has a pair of diminutive (but fully human) M.A.D. agents disguising themselves as leprechauns to spearhead Dr. Claw's plan to steal the Blarney Stone. In the end, their defeat is implied to be covertly assisted by real leprechauns
• The Woody Woodpecker short "His Better Elf" features a leprechaun that resembles a tiny green version of Woody who speaks with an Irish brogue. After offering our hero Three Wishes, it proceeds to grant them in the worst possible ways. Woody uses his third wish to get rid of the imp by telling it to "go to blazes!"
• The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold is a Rankin/Bass-Christmas Special featuring leprechauns^note It was the company's second-to-last stop-motion animated special and the last original story produced by the company for many years, made by the same people who made Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The special is about a boy named Dinty Doyle, who's ultimately tasked with protecting the gold of a community of hospitable leprechauns from an evil banshee, and it's one of the company's more obscure specials. While the special isn't bad, it was never really all that popular—this is probably (at least partially) because of the fact that leprechauns aren't traditionally associated with Christmas.
• In The Life and Times of Juniper Lee, leprechauns are actually about six feet tall and dress and act like New Age Retro Hippies. (Yes, really.)
• In a St. Patrick's Day episode of Jackie Chan Adventures, Jade dresses up as a leprechaun to get some info out of some guys at a pub, threatening to put a hex on them if they don't talk. It backfires because they chase after her, thinking "he'll" lead them to "his" pot of gold.
• Leprechauns are a rather common sight in American Dragon: Jake Long. Jake once even rescues one Leprechaun's pot o' gold, in another episode several magical creatures are caught by the Huntsclan - among them, one (very unlucky) leprechaun.
• Teen Titans Go!: The Titans are seeking leprechaun gold to break a curse brought on by pinching someone not wearing green on St Patrick's Day. Rainbows are generated by True Love's Kiss between leprechauns and they put their pot of gold at the end of them. Females have Tertiary Sexual Characteristics and apparently Robin is secretly a leprechaun.
• A Leprechaun appears in one episode of Adventures of the Gummi Bears as a childhood friend of Grammi. Unlike other versions the Leprechaun was very friendly, if a little misbehaved.
• In the Ready Jet Go! episode "Bortron Leprechaun", Sydney tells Jet about leprechauns, creatures that keep a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Jet wants to find one. When he thinks that he's found one, it turns out to be Sunspot.
• Punky Brewster:
  • Punky relates how she met Glomer in the title song. Glomleys (a creature of which Glomer is) are leprechaun helpers in their homeland of Chaundoon.
  • One episode has a bad leprechaun imprisoned as a piece of art on a plate escape and causing chaos.
  • In "Return to Chaundoon", Glomer returns home and brings Punky with him, where they find the glomleys and the leprechauns mysteriously asleep.
• Laff-A-Lympics had an event take place in Ireland where the object was to capture a leprechaun and borrow his pot of gold. While the leprechaun has some fun at the athletes' expense, the Rottens plan to win the event by foul means.
• A leprechaun asks for help from Ruff and Reddy in rescuing a leprechaun princess from a hulking, thieving brute, the "Goon of Glocca Morra" (also the name of the story arc).
• In an Al Brodax Popeye cartoon, the Sea Hag tricks a leprechaun into surrendering the pot of gold to her, putting him on the outs with the leprechaun community. Popeye makes things right again and becomes an honorary leprechaun.
• A Noveltoons cartoon called "Leprechauns Gold" focuses on Leprechauns during their annual gold-washing ceremony.
• Monsters vs. Aliens (2013): One enters the base in "When Luck Runs Out". It turns out to be an alien that manipulates probability, giving people good luck when he's friendly... and bad luck when he's angry.
• Lucky stars Happy "Hap" McSweeney, a leprechaun with terrible luck as a result of his family's pot of gold being stolen years ago by Harry Houlihan.
• Felix the Cat is called upon to help the leprechaun king a couple of times. First is when the Professor and Rock Bottom capture the king which allows them three wishes. When Felix intervenes, the Professor off the cuff tells Felix "I wish you'd disappear!" That was a big mistake as making a fourth wish automatically takes away everything the Professor and Rock wished for. The second time is when the Professor and Rock raid the village capturing leprechauns in their bid for gold.

Real Life

• In the Crichton neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama, a group of fine upstanding citizens thought they saw a leprechaun in a tree and soon formed a mob of leprechaun catchers intent upon getting "da gold", creating a media frenzy and casting an unflattering light on Alabamians in general with their antics. This video contains a "sketch" of the leprechaun that appeared on the Alabama evening news. To date, the leprechaun remains at large.
  • It turns out that it was the folks in the neighborhood messing with the media and the "leprechaun" was really a local resident with dwarfism wearing green and goofing around on a tree. No one really thought there was an actual leprechaun, they knew it was a guy called "Midget Sean" and they played-up the Jive Turkey stuff as well....all to troll the local media. It also was a bit of payback to folks with a possible ethnic-bias who called the media and cops over a big gathering of black people (who were merely being entertained by their pal, Sean and not causing trouble).

---