I grew up in Denver, CO, and the biggest thing that happened in my lifetime was the building of Denver International Airport, scheduled to open in 1993 but pushed back to 1994 due to infamous baggage system bugs.
Once it finally opened, DEN became the focus of roughly 37 bajillion conspiracy theories involving the Illuminati, neo-Nazism, and a blue horse statue with red eyes that people think is proof of devil worship. After 25 years, the airport is embracing its inherent weirdness with a new gargoyle statue in the main terminal… one that talks to passengers and debunks the conspiracy theories.
We first heard about this via LaughingSquid and we just love it to bits.
Folks, this is what happens when a state legalizes marijuana and is consistently rated among the nation’s healthiest people. People are generally in a good mood, in a state with so much extra revenue they can afford to build an animatronic puppet and pay a full-time comedian/voice actor to interact with people, like it’s some kind of Disneyland. They’ve gone mad with good times. And really,d they need to do something to make up for the fact that there’s really one main security line for the whole airport.
The official description of the gargoyle on DEN’s YouTube channel is as follows:
He’s 243 years old, and is here to clear the air on all the conspiracies at DEN. Turns out this gargoyle is wiser than we thought, and is sharing more than we planned. Along with giving travelers his two cents, he’s surprising them with smiles and plenty of laughs. We believe interactions at DEN should not only be helpful, but fun too. That’s the art of airporting.
If you’ve spent any significant time at LAX or ORD or ATL, you know the value of a little bit of levity when you’re running for your life between gates or stuck in an endless x-ray line. DEN has one of the weirdest histories of any major American airport and now they’re really letting you know they’re into it. Keep Denver Weird, I guess.
Image: DenversAirport
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!