Where Have All the Pink Elephants Gone?

[numbat]

Didn't it use to be that a celebrated joke that drunks, the imbibers of far too much alcohol, habitually saw pink elephants? It just occurred to me that this particular piece of folklore has very much gone out of fashion. Well yes, it has turned up in an episode of The Simpsons in the last couple of years, but other than that. Actually I don't

Comments

[capnoblivious]

I got drunk on absinthe a while back, and had stereotypical hallucinations. Not pink elephants, but - you know the thing where the drunk staggers down the street and you see cascading "GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS!" and "XXX" and "BOOZE!" neon signs down the side of the picture? It was like that, only I was seeing "Woden - 5" highway signs.

[profundo_rosso]

I thought absinthe made you see Kylie Minogue in a fairy outfit, or maybe that's just me and Baz Luhrmann.

[moral_vacuum]

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

[capnoblivious]

Sadly, not in my (limited) experience.

[profundo_rosso]

Typical. First the Post Office becomes Consignia. Then Scottish Electric mutates into Thus, and British Steel into Corus. Now the buggers have rebranded our alcohol-sodden hallucinations. I hereby announce the launch of the Campaign for Real DTs.

[numbat]

A good point and one which makes it interesting that in popular culture pink elephants use to turn up when drunks were drunk, not when they were drying out. I suppose charmingly addled drunks seeing amusing pink elephants was a safer and more comforting image than the reality of drying out.

[stillcarl]

Pink Elephants On Parade Lyrics

Look out! Look out!
Pink elephants on parade
Here they come!
Hippety hoppety
They're here and there
Pink elephants ev'rywhere
Look out! Look out!
They're walking around the bed
On their head
Clippety cloppety
Arrayed in braid
Pink elephants on parade
What'll I do? What'll I do?
What an unusual view!
I could stand the sight of worms
And look at microscopic germs
But technicolor pachyderms
Is really much for me
I am not the type to faint
When things are odd or things
are quaint
But seeing things you know that ain't
Can certainly give you an awful fright!
What a sight!
Chase 'em away!
Chase 'em away!
I'm afraid need your aid
Pink elephants on parade!
Pink elephants!
Pink elephants!

[moral_vacuum]

And a f***ing nightmareish sequence it was too.

[numbat]

Clearly the dark side of Disney. I'd love to hear Metallica or Rob Zombie cover this one.