Talk:Elephant joke

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Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on 10 January 2007. The result of the discussion was keep.

elephant joke ? I've never herd of such a thing ;)

The examples in the articles do not convince me that an elephant joke genre exists, though obviously sometimes elephants appear in jokes.

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[edit] Redirect?

I've expanded and cleaned up this article a bit, because there definitely is such a thing as an elephant joke genre. However, I notice it's also listed on the main Joke article, so this is basically redundant. Should it be a redirect or is this a useful page to have? --Ciaran H 17:12, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

This is a useful page to have because if it didn't exist, some clown would add a section to the elephant article to collect elephant jokes. This happens on the Pirate article, over and over. -EDM 04:48, 27 October 2005 (UTC)
I agree with Ciaran H. Besides the elephant joke in America has a history of at least several books and common variants of usage that intertwine with standard variants. Now if I can figure out how the Pink Panther manages to hand the smart nano bottle to the Ardvark in such a way that the ant size elephant everyone is trying to capture emerges triumphant in a funny way ... then I can use Art of Illusion to animate the joke and put a link in this stub .... may a thumbnail of hubble? ... to play the animation of the joke. Fortunately the Pink Panther and the ants were usually silent (except for some good music) while the Ardvark usually grunted so the sound track for the audio clip should not be too bad.
(Above comment written by Lazyquasar 04:38, 1 November 2005 (UTC))
I didn't really state an opinion either way, so I'm not sure what you're agreeing with. Are you saying this is a useful page or that this should be merged? --Ciaran H 20:14, 2 November 2005 (UTC)
Sorry. 8) My mistake. I agree with EDM, that this is a useful page for color and a place for potential jokers to skirt the rules for their own purposes. You might have noticed my example joke has some potential for ironic, sarcastic, satirical use in various types of political discussions involving pre-emptive scientific warfare. Doesn't even matter if some stodgy person insists on deleting it away from casual public view as I can link to it in the history when I need to spring my carefully laid trap on my buddies and dear enemies playfully stalking me in the stacks. In other words, somewhere nearby a shout of TROLL! may be heard. I can simply follow Larry's advice instead of engaging in a donnybrook because the material is still available for linking to a discussion here at Wikipedia or elsewhere where debate, analsyis, testing, scoring may be underway. So I think you are both right from my parochial viewpoint. 8) user:lazyquasar

[edit] Typo

There is a typo in the joke about the elephant and the plum. It asks for the difference, but answers with how they are alike. I'm going to change it, just giving everyone the heads up.--TriPredRavage 22:56, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Encyclopedic?

Hi! Seeing pirate joke go by in recent changes, it struck me as a potential candidate for an AfD nomination or a merge. They seem okay with that, but pointed out elephant joke as similar. To be fair, I feel like I'd have to do both or neither. Is there something I'm missing about the encyclopedic value of this? I'm aware of other joke genres from lightbulb jokes to the dozens to The Aristocrats, but I've never heard of this one, and the article doesn't establish notability. --William Pietri 07:26, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

There's absolutely no question that elephant jokes are an established joke genre, at least among American 9-year-olds. I would say (no source though) that the genre is just about as well-known as lightbulb jokes. No opinion on whether the subject is encyclopedic though. -EDM 14:57, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
I'll check with my pre-teen correspondents about this. Any particular area of the US? Meanwhile, could you say more about what distinguishes an elephant joke as a genre? Saying it's merely any joke that involve elephants doesn't seem to do it. For example, I know of no "chicken joke" genre that happens to include all jokes mentioning a chicken. There is of course a why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road genre, and I'm hoping there's something similar here. --William Pietri 15:43, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
At the risk of running afoul of the No Original Research and Unverifiability Wikitaboos, all I can say is that I recollect hours of mindless amusement as a 9 or 10 year old telling elephant jokes, and that I had joke books that had chapters devoted to elephant jokes. The distinguishing feature of the genre is that it involves something that would make sense for a normal-sized object but ignores the size aspect when applied to an elephant. The humor derives from the resulting absurdity. E.g. Q. How do you hide an elephant in a strawberry patch? A. Paint his toenails red. For what it's worth, I grew up in Southern California. -EDM 16:43, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
Hmmm... Are these usually told in a series? I note that the Wikibooks Jokebook lists them as a series joke and I'm wondering if that's another property that distinguishes the elephant joke from a joke with elephants. --William Pietri 19:00, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Riddles?

I noticed that almost every reference in this article isn't to a true joke, but to a riddle. Should this be called Elephant Riddle? Anyway, I'm adding a very famous elephant joke by Groucho Marx. Binky The WonderSkull 04:21, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Riddles are usually supposed to make sense, and test your brain. They aren't necessarily funny, and can be figured out. These jokes make no sense, and are intended to be funny (but usually aren't). Malamockq 16:06, 3 June 2006 (UTC)


Someone should add the new elephant joke by Colbert to this page.

[edit] Groucho Marx

I've removed the following:

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]

for the simple reason that it isn't an elephant joke as described by this article, and is not discussed as such in any source that I can find. Discussion of this line belongs in Animal Crackers (film). Uncle G 16:11, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

It was added again today, and reverted by me. Note that though the Groucho joke involves an elephant it is not in riddle form, so it's by no means an "elephant joke" as described in this article. --Wfaxon 15:19, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree with Uncle G, and added the reference to that article. I also understand the point made by Wfaxon. So I've added a paragraph to the history section that refers to precursors to the elephant joke. I hope this satisfies your concerns, and provides a bit of background to elephant humor that came before the modern form. Thanks for your comments! Binky The WonderSkull 16:15, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] How do you get two whales into a Mini?

Surely this should be: "How do you get two whales in a Mini?" "In" is often understood to mean "into", even more so in this sequence of references to loading up a Mini with various large animals. Using "into" explicitly here hurts the punchline. --Wfaxon 23:21, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

  • My error. The book actually does say "in", not "into". Uncle G 01:42, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Asimov

Isaac Asimov's introduction into this article is sudden and jarring, not to mention completely out of place.

His name is inserted into the article without any explanation of why he might be relevant to the subject of elephant jokes (except that he made a comment on them), or even any indication of who he actually is. He's only mentioned by last name, and his name does not link to his Wikipedia page.

Moreover, he is an author, not any kind of expert in either jokes or elephants. If his place in the article is to be maintained, there ought to be a reason for it other than a few comments he made on elephant jokes. I fail to see how those comments are relevant to the history of elephant jokes.

I'll wait a few days before I do anything on the off chance that someone decides to make a case for keeping the Asimov section, but after that I plan to remove it in its entirety.

--Mediocre (talk) 05:54, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

  • I shall put it back if you do. Your lack of understanding appears to be caused by your not actually looking at the sources cited, or even the citations. When you do, you'll find that not only did Asimov, known as a humourist, write a book dealing with this and other types of jokes, but that his name does link to the article about him. I find it surprising, moreover, that someone can fail to see how a description of what particular classes of people tell elephant jokes is relevant to an article about elephant jokes. Uncle G 16:15, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Wikipedia elephant issue

The elephant article on Wikipedia should be mentioned here, considering that both registered and non-registered users are making it say that the population has tripled. This would include You-Know-Who in the topic. Footballfan190 (talk) 00:21, 2 February 2008 (UTC)