The Elephant Joke

With many thanks to Frank Cresswell and his memory.

My much-loved daughter Bethany has promised to tell this joke at my funeral; Frank Cresswell and I are, I think, the only two people in the world who have thought that this joke is genuinely hilarious.



A mouse was once walking through the jungle when it heard, in the distance, a great trumpeting noise. Fascinated, the mouse headed towards the noise and came to the top of a large clearing. At the far end of the clearing was a magnificent bull-elephant with its trunk raised to the heavens, giving it its all.

‘Wow!’ thought the mouse and strolled down the clearing to stand in front of the elephant.

Looking up, the mouse said ‘Wow! Mr Elephant, aren’t you just so big and magnificent and so very, very loud!’

Looking down, the elephant said ‘Well, that’s just how elephants are. Aren’t you small and grey’.

The mouse said ‘Well, I’ve been ill.’