Animal Crackers Quotes
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Source: Animal Crackers
Speaker: Captain Spaulding
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.
Context
This line is spoken by Captain Spaulding (played by Groucho Marx) in the movie Animal Crackers, directed by Victor Heerman (1930).
Animal Crackers is a Marx Brothers classic. In it, Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, a famed African explorer. Well, really he just plays Grouch Marx, or at least the cigar-smoking wisecracker that he was in every movie. One of his most well-known one-liners, the "elephant in pajamas joke," comes as Capt. Spaulding delivers a totally nonsensical lecture about nothing at all. Later in the movie, a valuable painting gets stolen and Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Zeppo get wrapped up in the caper.
Get comfy and check out the clip here.
Where you've heard it
Let's be real here. You're not going to hear too many references to 1930s comedies in current pop culture—even if we are talking about a total classic like Animal Crackers. Though you can find shout-outs in smarty pants shows like Jeopardy, which used the quote for one of its answers... or questions, we should say. The HBO show The Newsroom also referenced the quote in an episode called "Bullies," when executive producer MacKenzie McHale lightens up things by quipping, "How it got in my pajamas, I don't know."
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
All right, so quoting an old Marx Brothers movie might definitely earn you nerd points, since it's so old-school. But come on, this is a Dad joke that's worth dusting off once in a while.