Redditor goes viral after giving Arnold Schwarzeneggar a “fantastic” gift

Theo Salaun
arnold schwarzenegger

In a particularly heartwarming internet tale, a Reddit craftsman has gone viral for giving Arnold Schwarzenegger a hand-carved pipe that the former governor, Mr. Olympia, and film superstar described as “fantastic.”

A Redditor, ‘RadonLab,’ carved a working, wooden pipe in honor of Arnold’s birthday and posted it to the ‘Damnthatsinteresting’ subreddit. Little did they know, the Terminator actually browses Reddit and noticed the post, leading to him describing the pipe as “beautiful” and “fantastic” before asking if he could buy it. Instead, RadonLab said he’d like to just offer the former governor it as a gift.

arnold schwarzenegger pipe
The pipe carved by u/RadonLab for Arnold’s birthday.

While they say that no good deed goes unpunished, this story instead took a positive karmic turn as Arnold refused to receive the gift without giving RadonLab something in return. Like his half-silver pipe, Arnold repaid Radon’s gift with a signed picture of himself, silver-bearded, puffing on the novelty present.

Dissatisfied with simply demonstrating that the handmade pipe actually works for smoking just as well as it does for catching a film icon’s attention, Arnold responded with a simple letter and accompanying signature.

 

Mr. Schwarzenegger kept his gratitude markedly concise: “Thank you for the great pipe,” adding on in a Reddit comment that, “I can’t thank you enough!”

This was understandably music to Radon’s ears, as the interaction only grows more wholesome when revealed that they were self-conscious about their art: “You probably made not only my day, but my whole life. Thank you very much, for me it is a real magic to see you with my work! I still don’t believe in it.”

Fortunately, seeing is believing, and now Radon can blissfully tackle future projects knowing that their Schwarzenegger pipe was deeply enjoyed (and, subsequently, exhaled) by its inspiration. Although the entire exchange of gifts happened around a month ago, it was just now brought to social media’s attention by ‘OriginalYoni’ on Twitter, prompting Arnold to once again express his appreciation.

 

A couple things stand out about this story. Most notably, it’s nice to know that Reddit is home to both multimillionaires like Schwarzenegger and craftsmen that can make beautiful, yet functional pieces.

Further, we should probably all appreciate that, as it turns out, those two things can converge. If you make something beautiful in honor of a celebrity you like, then maybe that celebrity will see it, ask for it, and, one day, smoke out of it.

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About The Author

Théo is a former writer at Dexerto based in New York and built on competition. Formerly an editor for Bleacher Report and philosophy student at McGill, he fell in love with Overwatch and Call of Duty — leading him to focus on esports for Dex.