But not two Santas riding a wooden horse!' In one episode of De Generaal, the eponymous general has his latest Doomsday Device disguised as a wooden horse, prompting a drunk to complain, 'What's in this rotgut they sold me? When I'm drunk, I wish to see pink elephants! Or blue ones, I'm an open-minded guy.Longtarin, who had secretly been drinking while on duty, screams in horror at seeing Gaston's costume and the last panel sees him applying the alcotest to himself, while planning to take time off for a detox. In another episode, Gaston is on his way to a costumed party dressed up as an alien creature, when Longtarin pulls him over for an alcotest.Invoked in one episode, which involves an elephant borrowed from a zoo and painted pink, that Gaston plans to use to prank one of his friends with a tendency to drink.Can combine with You Have to Believe Me! or Crying Wolf (if the drunk person routinely claims to see pink elephants, and now there's one in the person’s backyard). A drunk character who sees them may mistake it for this trope, causing that character to swear off drinking. Should not be confused with literal pink elephants which can occur in Real Life as a result of albinism. Compare with Single Malt Vision, where alcohol affects sight, but does not cause actual hallucinations.

May overlap with Marijuana Is LSD, which is about unrealistic depictions of drug effects. Except in fiction.Ī subtrope of Mushroom Samba, which covers hallucinations caused by drugs in general. There is a grain of truth to this-severe alcohol poisoning can cause hallucinations. In fiction, however, it's common to suggest that extremely strong drink will cause people to see hallucinations. In Real Life, alcohol-related hallucinations are most commonly associated with 'the DTs' (delirium tremens), which is a withdrawal symptom experienced by severe alcoholics, not a direct effect of the alcohol itself. What the stereotypical hallucination is likely to be varies culturally drunk Americans tend to see pink elephants or snakes, Germans see white mice, and Russians have green imps. (If a work has someone hallucinating actual pink elephants, it's probably a comedy exercising the Rule of Funny.) It is now widely used to refer to any sort of alcohol-related hallucinations - even those that don't involve elephants of any color. The term was originally coined by Jack London - himself a famous drinker - in his autobiographical novel John Barleycorn. 'Pink Elephants' is a common way to refer to alcohol-related hallucinations.

Jack london alcoholic