What Does Pink Elephant In The Room Mean
It s also an intentionally confusing combination of the expressions white elephant pink.
What does pink elephant in the room mean. A pink elephant in the room is a phrase used to say that there is something very obvious one cant miss it yet no one wants to be the person to point it out or talk about it. As the others say you re combining two sayings to come up with an interesting third one. It is based on the fact that an elephant in a small room would be impossible to ignore. The expression elephant in the room usually the elephant in the room or the elephant in the living room is a metaphorical idiom in english for an important or enormous topic question or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable or is personally socially or politically.
A pink elephant is something wrong something which cannot exist so to say that one is in the room means that there is something wrong in the present company. Incidentally my wife does that all the time. Have you heard the phrase there is an elephant in the room. Its assumed that everyone has noticed it.
The elephant in the room also elephant in the living room elephant in the corner elephant on the dinner table elephant in the kitchen etc is an english idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored. This phrase was first introduced by sam senev who brought an actual pink elephant to a speech. A costly and troublesome hallucination which nobody wants to mention. It s so common that we all have a saying for it we take her maiden name and add ism to it as in rodney ism.
By painting the elephant in the same bold pattern as the room s wallpaper banksy emphasized the phrase s meaning by both making the elephant even more obvious and by giving those who chose to ignore it like the woman in the tableau an opportunity to pretend that it had blended into the wallpaper background. It s often used when someone of a different sexual persuasion from the rest of the group is present and the speaker finds the situation awkward.