what is the meaning of a pink elephant?

Madonna mentions it in her song Dear Jessie. I don't know the significance though. They also had them in Fantasia...I think.

superspaceboy said:

that was my immediate thought as well...

"...Pink elephants and lemonade..."

"look out... look out... they're coming around the bend, here they come, hippity-hoppity... they're here, they're there pink elephants everywhere..."

Haven't y'all seen "Dumbo?" He sees pink elephants after falling into a vat of, I believe it was, champagne...

I only know the freckled elephant with the square trunk
that was featured in a Donald Duck story:

THE BILLION DOLLAR SAFARI
Scrooge's Zoo is failing and in order to get some more
guests he will pay a billion dollars for a speckled
elephant with a square trunk...

That darned pink elephant followed me home again!"


Pink elephants have been the favorite hallucination of drinkers for a long time. Surely, if you've had too much to drink and you see pink elephants, than it is time to seek help!

It has been said that, "Pink elephants are a beast of bourbon." It is certainly true that they have been referred to lovingly as such for quite some time, although I wish I knew of the true origin of this phrase.

In Jack London's John Barleycorn, an autobiographical memoir of 1913, he writes; "There are, broadly speaking, two types of drinkers. There is the man whom we all know, stupid, unimaginative, whose brain is bitten numbly by numb maggots; who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants. He is the type that gives rise to the jokes in the funny papers."





The movies even got into the act with this theme too.

Disney's Dumbo (1941)
Pink Elephants on Parade was a favorite segment.

Jimmy Stewart Classic Harvey (1950)
Stewart portrays a drunk with an imaginary rabbit as his best friend.

The Three Stooges Cuckoo on a Choo-Choo (1952)
A drunken Shemp is in love with an imaginary giant canary.

Whimsical and enchanting, the lore of the pink elephants evolved into popular cocktail themes, songs and decorations. The following are all illustrated with pictures.

Guy Lombardo recorded "Pink Elephants" in 1932.

Pink Elephant Bar Ware themes were popular in the 50's.

A Guide to Pink Elephants is a cocktail recipe collection.

No home bar is complete without a drink with a pink elephant decoration.





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[Edited 3/7/05 6:23am]