Elephant joke

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An elephant joke is a joke or riddle that involves an elephant. It usually relies on the great size and/or weight of the animal for its humor. Although elephant jokes are typically children's humor, a more sophisticated form appeals more to adults, sometimes without being off-color.

Q: What time is it when an elephant sits on your car?
A: Time to get a new car.

Most elephant jokes, such as the one above, still make sense when another animal is substituted, although generally only as long as the animal is large and heavy, such as a hippopotamus. But there are a number of riddles to which the answer is "elephant" that rely on a play on the word "trunk."

Q: What has four legs and is always ready to travel?
A: An elephant; it has its own trunk.

Contents

[edit] Absurdist jokes

Elephants have also become the subject of a more sophisticated form of surreal or absurd humor that appeals more to adults in which the real-world aspects of the elephant are ignored. Once one absurd premise is accepted, a whole system of faulty logic can be created.

Q:How are plums and elephants alike?
A:They're both purple, except for the elephant.
Q: How do you fit four elephants into a Volkswagen?
A: Two in the front, two in the back.
Q: How do you fit five elephants into a Volkswagen?
A: Two in the front, two in the back, one in the glove box [or "trunk"].
Q: How do you know an elephant has been in your refrigerator?
A: Elephant footprints in the butter.
Q: How do you know there are two elephants in your refrigerator?
A: You can hear giggling when the light goes out.
Q: How do you know there are three elephants in your refrigerator?
A: You can't close the door.
Q: How do you know there are four elephants in your refrigerator?
A: The Volkswagen is parked out front.

Such jokes are often told in succession, in large numbers, with individual jokes being not especially funny, but the humor builds as one joke advances on previous ones.

Q: How do you get an elephant into the fridge?
A: 1. Open door. 2. Insert elephant. 3. Close door.
Q: How do you get a giraffe into the fridge?
A: 1. Open door. 2. Remove elephant. 3. Insert giraffe. 4. Close door.
Q: The king of the jungle, the lion, decided to have a party. He invited every animal in the jungle, but one didn't come. Which one?
A: The giraffe, because it was stuck in the fridge.
Q: Two explorers attempt to cross a crocodile-infested stream. How do they manage to get across?
A: They just wade across. The crocodiles are at the lion's party.

Elephant jokes are frequently nonsensical, and may in some cases be anti-jokes:

Q: How do you shoot a blue elephant?
A: With a blue elephant gun, of course.
Q: How do you shoot a yellow elephant?
A: Have you ever seen a yellow elephant?
Q: How do you shoot a red elephant?
A: Hold his trunk shut until he turns blue, and then shoot him with the blue elephant gun.

[edit] Other standard variants

Q: Why are elephants wrinkled?
A: They are too difficult to iron.
Q: How many elephants fit in a compact car?
A: None.
Q: Why did the elephant lie down on the sidewalk?
A: To trip ants.
Q: What did the hunter say upon seeing the elephants coming?
A: Here come the elephants.
Q: What did the hunter say upon seeing the elephants coming wearing dark glasses?
A: Nothing, he couldn't recognize them.
Q: How do you get down off an elephant?
A: You don't, you get down off a duck.

[edit] Groucho Marx

One of the most famous elephant jokes was told by Groucho Marx when he portrayed the supposed African explorer and game hunter Captain Spaulding in the Marx Brothers' movie "Animal Crackers." The American Film Institute listed it as one of the 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time [1]:

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know. [2]

[edit] Trivia

  • The elephant-in-the-refrigerator joke is also told in Japanese, perhaps playing on the word for elephant (象 - zou) being inserted into the word for refrigerator (冷蔵庫 - reizouko).

[edit] See also

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