2007-08-12 05:00:26 · 10 answers · asked by Liss 2 in Food & Drink ➔ Beer, Wine & Spirits
Because of the movie Dumbo, when he got drunk and saw all those crazy elephants, mostly pink, singing the "elephants on parade" song.
2007-08-12 05:08:19 · answer #1 · answered by casw1 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I found this explanation
"
The phrase pink elephant is not normally used as you describe it. The standard meaning is 'hallucinations caused by excessive alcohol intake', usually used in the phrase "to see pink elephants" meaning 'to be very drunk'. Once defined in terms of hallucinations, the origin is clear: if you're so drunk that you're seeing pink elephants before your eyes, you are quite drunk indeed.
The earliest example for a related usage is found in the late 1890s, where the hallucinated creature is pink giraffe. In this case, it is used in the way you describe it: "pink giraffes following me all around." The elephant becomes the beast of choice by the 1910s, when Jack London wrote about "the man...who...sees...blue mice and pink elephants."
(The animated sequence of elephants blowing pink bubbles, set to Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" in Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940), may allude to the expression pink elephant, but it is certainly not the inspiration for it.)
2007-08-12 05:10:50 · answer #2 · answered by R 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Isn't there a drink named a "pink elephant" ? If so, you'd be sober at the 1st drink , and still see a pink elephant.
2007-08-12 07:32:37 · answer #3 · answered by frith25 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's just an example of something totally unreal that you might "see" when you are blotto.
There's no reason it has to be, specifically, a "pink elephant". It could just as easily be, oh, I don't know, a "polka-dot aardvark". But, "pink elephant" seems to have captured the popular imagination.
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2007-08-12 05:08:15 · answer #4 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When people suffer from DT's ( Delirium Tremens) they generally see very scary things. Most of the people I had to assist in holding down until the ambulance got there, saw spiders and snakes and demons biting them.
At that point it is very real to them and they will hurt you to get away from these " Things". I have only dealt with about a half dozen but virtually all of them saw snakes and spiders,, its the other items that varied. No one ever mentioned pink elephants.
2007-08-13 15:03:13 · answer #5 · answered by Ret. Sgt. 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because one would obviously need to be high to see one, good question dear, does this do anything for ya, ?? Don't think of a pink elephant, did it work? LoL!
2007-08-12 05:11:54 · answer #6 · answered by chris77 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What do you mean? There are pink elephants in my room with me right now. I think - hold on, I need another drink.
2007-08-12 06:01:32 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because they are the last thing a sober would see in the streets...
2007-08-12 05:08:08 · answer #8 · answered by Discoinferno 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It was felt it was part of the DTs, when people saw all kinds of hallucinations
2007-08-12 05:17:14 · answer #9 · answered by Experto Credo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
what?
2007-08-12 06:13:19 · answer #10 · answered by lamlo32 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋