An elephant joke is a joke, almost always an absurd riddle or conundrum and often a sequence of such, that involves an elephant. Elephant jokes were a fad in the 1960s, with many people constructing large numbers of them according to a set formula. Sometimes they involve parodies or puns.
Four examples of elephant jokes are:
- Q: Why did the elephant paint its fingernails red?
- A: So it could hide in the strawberry patch.
- Q: How can you tell that an elephant is in the bathtub with you?
- A: By the smell of peanuts on its breath.
- Q: How can you tell that an elephant has been in your refrigerator/ice box?
- A: By the footprints in the butter/cheesecake/cream cheese.
- and
- Q: What time is it when an elephant sits on your fence?
- A: Time to build a new fence.
Read more about Elephant Joke: History, Structure, Symbolism
Famous quotes containing the words elephant and/or joke:
“The elephant sneezed
And fell on his knees,
And that was the end of the monk,
the monk, the monk.”
—Unknown. Animal Fair. . .
New Treasury of Children’s Poetry, A; Old Favorites and New Discoveries. Joanna Cole, comp. (1984)
“You could read Kant by yourself, if you wanted; but you must share a joke with some one else.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)