"في صباح أحد الأيام، أطلقت النار على فيل وأنا في بيجامتي. كيف دخل الفيل إلى بيجامتي، لن أعرف أبدًا."
— Groucho Marx
Simplified Meaning:
This quote is a joke playing on the confusion of how it's phrased. At first, it sounds like the person shot an elephant while they were wearing pajamas. But then it humorously suggests that the elephant somehow got into their pajamas, which is a funny and impossible situation. The humor comes from the surprise and absurdity of the idea of an elephant fitting into pajamas. To understand this better, imagine reading a sentence that says, "I sawed a table while eating lunch." You'd expect it means someone was sawing a table during lunch, but it could also jokingly imply the table was being sawed while it was in the middle of eating lunch, which is impossible and silly. In life, this teaches us about how language can be playful and tricky, and sometimes things aren't always as they seem when first heard or read. It's important to pay attention to how sentences are structured to understand the actual meaning, but also to appreciate the humor in everyday communication.