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A college bathroom hides a bizarre Danny DeVito shrine, and we have questions

It suggests leaving an offering, like an egg in this trying time.

Morgan Sung

on November 13, 2018

Do you ever leave a small offering to our Lord and Savior, Danny DeVito, during your restroom breaks?

A bathroom at Purchase College in New York hides a mildly terrifying secret: The paper towel dispenser leads to a "cavernous shrine" to an American icon.

In one video, a student walks through a hole in the bathroom wall where the paper towel dispenser was ripped out, and into an unfinished room spray painted with graffiti. A DeVito cutout ominously lurks in the corner, surrounded by offerings from Purchase students.

"This is so weird," someone says in the video.

Weird might be an understatement.

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Another tweet shows how the paper towel dispenser hides the shrine from unsuspecting bathroom users.

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In a tweet from last month, a student invited DeVito to visit Purchase for the "secret room that worships" him. The shrine is decked out with a poster of the grinning It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia star, and a small handwritten placard instructing parishioners to "Leave An Offering for Our Lord and Savior Danny DeVito, Patron Saint of Trash Men."

According to @terreeslavie, the shrine is "really not well known" through the campus, but since it went viral on Tuesday, news of it spread through the student body. She and her friends ventured out to find it one night, and left another picture of DeVito at the altar.

When asked for the specific location of the shrine, she demurred.

"It's in a bathroom," @terreeslavie said over Twitter DM. "I can't reveal which though. It's confidential."

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According to another student who tweeted about it, @emfriedchicken, the shrine is somewhere in Purchase's Visual Arts building.

"One of my friends said she heard that the paper towel dispenser comes out of the wall," she said over Twitter DM. "And she wanted to see what is behind it, so we went one Friday night at like midnight ... and there it was. Danny DeVito."

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It's "tradition" to leave something for DeVito, so @emfriedchicken and her friends left coupons from a nearby restaurant.

"We could tell it's been there a while because there was paper towels on the floor in the secret room," she said. "And our campus only uses air dryers now!"

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Older students remember the sacred space as well, @emfriedchicken said.

In a tweet, SUNY Purchase invited Danny DeVito to campus to meet his "super fans."

"We'd like to say we're surprised," the college said. "But our students are well known for their creativity and sense of humor."

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Unfortunately, the shrine is no long accessible. SUNY Purchase student @nickforero11 reached out to Mashable through Twitter DM and said that it was "sadly sealed off."

"It was good harmless fun for students for a long time," he said. "But sadly all of the attention made the administration aware of it and they took it away."

On the bright side, students and Danny DeVito worshippers can take solace in the fact that their god-king knows about the holy place.

DeVito finally acknowledged the shrine in a tweet on Friday, and implored his fans to "be aware of the plastics in the ocean."

"Your shrine honors me," he said. "My heart is filled with love and garbage."

He asked shrine visitors to take care of the environment for him.