 Good evening. You know him. We all know him. He stares. He watches. But you might not know about his history, which spans over a decade in length. His file name is gnome.mdl, and his first appearance was in Half-Life 2 Episode 2 in 2007. He's found just once in the entire game, that being in the opening chapter, inside of the communications building that Alex uses to make contact with the White Forest base. If you crouch, you can spot him underneath these bunk beds and pull him out with the gravity gun. This guy is the source of one of the most notorious achievements in the Valve community. Little Rocket Man, which sports an 8% completion rate, requires the player to carry the gnome for six entire chapters, all the way into the missile silo in our mutual fiend, and place him within the craft to accompany Dr. Kleiner's pet headcrab Lamar. This involves balancing the gnome inside the muscle car during intense chase sequences, making sure not to lose him inside some of the maze-like ant-lion caves, and generally keeping your eyes glued to him constantly throughout the majority of the game. Or, alternatively, using one of the whitelisted console commands to spawn the prop in on the map Outland 11, in order to cheese the achievement entirely like a lazy nerd. Anyway, gnome.mdl's next appearance was in Left 4 Dead 2 in 2009. This is when he got the name Gnome Chomsky, a playoff of prolific American linguist Gnome Chomsky. This rendition of the gnome was completely overhauled from the version we saw in Episode 2, as you can tell by comparing the model's textures. It appears in Chapter 2 of the Dark Carnival campaign, The Fairgrounds. In order to get your hands on him, you'll need to score over 750 points in the shooting gallery of any game, at which point a prize closet will open with him inside. Just like the gas can and the cola bottles, the gnome is an improvised weapon that you can left-click to throw and right-click to push or stagger enemies with. In order to get the achievement Garden Gnome, you'll need to take him all the way from Chapter 2 to Dark Carnival's finale, and carry him into the rescue helicopter with you. But if rescuing the gnome only on Dark Carnival isn't enough to satisfy your demented mind, the game has a gameplay mutation called Last Gnome on Earth, in which you start any campaign of your choice carrying the gnome, and have to take it through each safe room and rescue vehicle of whatever chapter you're playing. Otherwise, the level transitions won't occur and the campaign won't end. On top of that, whoever's holding onto the gnome at any given time has the boomer bile splash effect applied to them, meaning they'll be heavily targeted by infected. There's also the Healing Gnome mutation, in which all healing items are removed, and the only way for the survivors to recover health is by alternating a mythical healing gnome. Man, Leopard Head 2 is a weirder game than people realize. By the way, check out the campaign poster for the Dark Carnival campaign. Look right here in between Ellis' legs. You can never escape him. Anywho, after appearing as a very characteristic item in 2 of Valve's most widely praised classics, Gnome Chomsky predictably became an iconic prop, and a lovable staple of the Source Engine community. Prominent Gary's modmapper Bigwig included the gnome as an Easter egg in his iconic sandbox maps Big City and Atomic. Mods turning the survivors into the gnome became popular on the Leopard Head 2 workshop. The gnome began appearing in fan media like animations and art, and so on. However, in part due to the confused, contentious, and stagnant period in Valve's history referred to by Robin Walker as the Wilderness, it would be another decade before we saw another official appearance of Gnome Chomsky. Half-Life Alyx was the first official title in the Half-Life series in over 10 years. I remember freaking out the day its announcement tweet dropped, and I also remember freaking out again once its actual trailer hit YouTube. When the game hit shelves, or rather the Steam Store equivalent, in March 2020, it was one of the most exciting days in the Valve community's history, and probably one of the most exciting days of my life as well, regardless of how sad that might sound. Despite years of leaks, the near decade of radio silence from the series' developers had convinced pretty much everyone that having hope for a new game in the series was ridiculous. But now, people were left awestruck and stuck to their screens. Let's be real here, though. This game would have had no chance of living up to its unimaginable hype if one iconic character didn't make an appearance. Fear not, however, as not only can you find a magnetic bottle opener made in Chomsky's image inside of Russell's lab, but once you head outside, you can find the man himself, in precisely the same shape we saw him all those years ago, sitting on an abandoned couch. In keeping with the Gnome Run precedent established by Episode 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, you can get the achievement Gnome of Alt of My Own by carrying the gnome all the way to the game's final chapter. Given how ceremonious this cameo in Half-Life Alyx is, and how recent that game's release was, it might shock you that it's actually not the last time that we've heard from Gnome Chomsky. First, as part of a promotion with Left 4 Dead 2, Gnome Chomsky appeared in Dying Light as a weapon on October 27th, 2020. I mean, it's a different model, but you know, you can take what you can get. And second, on November 20th, 2020, a 3D-printed replica of the Gnome Chomsky model was actually loaded into a rocket and launched into space in real life, as part of a collaborative charity event between Valve's CEO Gabe Newell, Prop Company Wayto Workshop, and a space satellite launch service company called Rocket Lab. Gnome Chomsky's liftoff was broadcasted live to the world. And there goes the faring and welcome to space, Mr. Gnome Chomsky. And after it was complete, a commemorative achievement was added to the Steam versions of Left 4 Dead 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 2 called Gnome Alone. Yes, they took what everyone dreaded doing back in 2007 and did it in real life. They actually put aside valuable time and resources in order to send a fucking garden gnome into space as a reference to a then 13-year-old video game. And then they probably went right back to trying to put computers in humans' brains or something. What else would you expect from Valve? Unfortunately, though, this real-life expedition is where Gnome Chomsky's story ends. For now, at least. Maybe you'll show up in Citadel or HLX or one of the other 500 Valve projects that are at least nominally in development at any given time. For the latest Bleeding Edge Gnome Chomsky updates and news, join my Discord server, linked in the description. And if you want to support the creation of more videos like this one, I've also got a Patreon, and I stream Valve games basically every single day on my channel, so check it out if you're interested in that. Thanks for watching, have a great day.