Have you heard the tale of the Irishman and the elephant? Well, the circus came to town and an Irishman went to the circus one afternoon as he had always loved the circus from when he was a child and hadn’t been to one in years.
He enjoyed the performance by the horse riders, then the high wire act and laughed out loud at the clowns.
Next, the crowd gasped as a man came into the circus ring with an elephant.
This elephant did all kinds of tricks, balancing on two legs, dancing and more. The audience were amazed at how clever the elephant was.
Then the man claimed to the audience that the elephant could just look at a person and tell that person’s age.
The Irishman was very skeptical about this claim and said so out loud, in no uncertain terms.
The man ignored him and had the elephant look at a small boy in the front row of the audience. The elephant then stamped its foot 9 times.
“Is that right?” he asked the boy.
“Yes, I’m nine!” the boy said.
The audience clapped and cheered, but the Irishman continued his loud heckling, still not believing that this was true.
The man asked the elephant to tell the ages of several other people in the audience and each time the elephant stamped his foot and the people said that he was correct.
The Irishman got even louder and more abusive toward the man with the elephant, still disbelieving that this animal could tell a person’s age just by looking at them.
Finally, the man could take it no longer and wagered the Irishman that the elephant could look at him and tell him his age. The Irishman took him up on the wager and stepped into the circus ring.
The elephant looked real close at the Irishman, turned around, raised his tail and passed wind like you wouldn’t believe. Then he turned back around, knocked the Irishman to the ground with his trunk and then stomped on him twice.
The Irishman, by now crumpled and bleeding, staggered back to his feet and with a sound of disbelief in his voice cried, “Mother of Mary, he’s right… Farty-two!”
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