Please Enjoy This Elephant Video That Has Made Me Cry Laughing for 8 Years

Happy Saturday night. I’m here to share a video that for nearly a decade now has sent me into such a violent laughing fit that, in Victorian times, would have absolutely gotten me thrown into a woman’s mental asylum.

The first time I saw this video was in 2018. I was traveling around Thailand with a couple of friends and, after doing extensive research to make sure we weren’t about to participate in elephant abuse, we booked a day at Elephant Nature Park in Phuket. All the elephants had been rescued from abusive or exploitative situations; most had hearing or vision loss or clear signs of trauma. You couldn’t ride or bathe them (huge red flag if you book a place where you can), you could only observe them from a respectful distance while they lived their lives.

This was all explained to us at the beginning of the day via a standard safety video, with a man calmly and clearly walking us through all the rules. But the rules are illustrated with these little cartoons that immediately short-circuited my brain; I could barely catch my breath; tears were streaming down my face. It felt like my skull was a barrel of marbles that someone had knocked over, and that those marbles were the only thing keeping me from living a life as a maniacal laughing hyena. 

Granted, this day came near the end of the two-week Thailand leg of our trip. We’d slept in hostels, on planes, and on boats; we’d been hungover and were permanently sunburned. I, personally, had barely survived two bouts of land sickness (which is real and terrifying, no matter what my friends say!!!!). Physically, we were depleted. Mentally, we were hanging on by a thread. Spiritually, we were fixated on getting a perfect elephant selfie for the gram. 

So at the time, we assumed this was why this harmless little cartoon seemingly cracked something open in my brain. 

But in the eight years since, I cannot stress enough that, despite cycling through a few different eras and personalities, my reaction to this video has remained wholly unchanged. My friends have sent it to me when I’m sad, hungover, angry, or just need to reset, and it still makes me laugh so hard that I have to recover afterward like I just hiked a mountain. Sometimes, they send it for no reason at all, and I find myself on a random Wednesday, watching this insane little elephant cartoon on a loop for 30 minutes, tears streaming down my face. 

Before writing this, I couldn’t find it on YouTube and texted my friend, who responded with the link in less than 60 seconds—this is how deeply embedded in our lives this video has become. I’ve included a screenshot for proof. 

My friends find it “cute.” They do not laugh the way I do. Tell me in the comments if this also made your eyes fill with tears of laughter, or if I need to finally bring it to my therapist and double her rate. Better yet—do you have your own video that turns your body into a barrel of monkeys? Please send it immediately. 

Anyway, we had a fantastic day with the elephants. One did approach our group, so I got my elephant selfie (81 likes, which still feels huge for me) in addition to what I now understand to be a lifelong psychological trigger. 

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