Pink elephant

The pink elephant is the classic English topos for an alcohol-related hallucination . The effects of other drugs such as LSD are also often associated with this unlikely animal, which is also said to be able to fly from time to time.

Word origin and history

The origin of the pink elephants is in the English-speaking world ("pink elephants") . After 1890, the color pink was initially associated with alcohol , and in combination with elephants it appeared in 1913 in the novel John Barleycorn (Eng. "King of Alcohol") by Jack London . It says:

“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 funny papers. "

“There are generally two kinds of drinkers. On the one hand, the man we all know, stupid, unimaginative, his stupid brain eaten up by stupid maggots; He walks with measured pace on his hesitant legs, constantly falls into the gutter and sees blue mice and pink elephants at the height of his intoxication. It is he who the newspapers print jokes about. "

The pink elephant became a popular phrase and was sung about in Guy Lombardo's popular hit Pink Elephants (1932). He did not penetrate the German-speaking area until after the Second World War. In 1983 the Deutsche Bundesbahn advertised its special program “Pink Weeks” with pink elephants.

He has also left his mark on film history. The Pink Elephants on Parade scene from the Disney cartoon Dumbo (1941) is famous . The drinker Barney Gumble from the animated series The Simpsons also appeared in the episode D'oh-in 'in the Wind while this animal was drunk.

In his parodic fantasy novels about the Discworld , Terry Pratchett usually replaces the pink elephant with a recurring mauve elephant .

Pink Elephant was also the name of a Dutch music label of the 1960s and 1970s, with which, among other things, the band Shocking Blue was under contract.

There is a type of cigarette called Pink Elephant, which is flavored with vanilla and wrapped in pink paper.

In the US, pink elephant is also a derisive name for members of the Log Cabin Republicans , the organization of gay, lesbian and bisexual supporters of the Republican Party . The elephant is the party's heraldic animal, while the color pink is often associated with homosexuality.

Diversionary maneuvers

In the GDR the term “pink elephant” (also “green elephant”) was used by musicians or cabaret artists. It denoted a procedure against state censorship . Every performance had to be accepted beforehand. Statements that were politically undesirable have been deleted. In order to get through as many swipes as possible, extreme allusions were built into the raw version. As expected, these were then deleted by the censors during the screening. Immediately after these extreme things, the actually intended allusions were built in, which the censorship authority immediately after the major allusions escaped. So to speak: You don't see a little mouse like a pink elephant.

See also

• " White Elephant "

Web links

• a cognitive psychological interpretation of the phenomenon ( Memento from May 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• a cultural history of the Suff including elephants ( Memento from June 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (in English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Humor in the totalitarian regime. ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on: carpeberlin.com . September 5, 2008. 
2. ↑ Kerstin Decker : Silly: One month, one wall, one music. In: Der Tagesspiegel. March 29, 2009.