History Main / ElephantsNeverForget

[[folder:Comic Book]]
* Parodied in ''ComicBook/{{Cattivik}}'': in the story "The Cruise" he ends up releasing several wild animals from the ship's hold, and they proceed to wreak havoc on the ship. We see a guest telling his female friend how he once wounded an elephant during an hunting trip in Africa but couldn't finish him off, and gave up hunting, fearing the elephant's revenge and quoting their prodigious memory. [[TemptingFate As soon as the woman mocks this rumor as superstition]], the escaped elephant runs by, trampling the man.
--->'''Countess''': "Looks like your native guide was right,Baron!"
--->'''Baron''': "[[MajorInjuryUnderreaction Never underestimate the native's experience, Countess]]."
[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/TheOneAndOnlyIvan'': Stella. Ivan states that, unlike himself, she recalls every detail about her past.

* In ''The One And Only Ivan'', Ruby (who is an elephant herself) asks Ivan to tell her a story from his past. When Ivan tells her that he's not so good at remembering the early parts of his life, Bob says that Ivan is the exact opposite of an elephant; he can't remember anything.

** In "The Wraisins of Wrath", the raisins in Fergy and Paulie's pie causes her to be opposite of her normal self and able to remember things. She also remembers an unflattering article Pecky apparently wrote about her, so she chases him around trying to hurt him.

* ''Magazine/TheNewYorker'': A two-page comic by Rea Irvin in 1926 titled "An Elephant Never Forgets" depicts a circus elephant who is fed soap by a little boy, and later recognizes him as an old man and chases him down for revenge.
** Similarly, a 1948 cartoon by Whitney Darrow, Jr. of one circus elephant talking to another: "There's a character in this town I'd like to catch up with--a snub-nosed, freckle-faced, barefooted little upstart in blue denims, goddamn handy with a slingshot. I guess he'd be about sixty now."

* ''WesternAnimation/ColorClassics'': In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtmoDpPWDI "An Elephant Never Forgets",]] the elephant student cheerfully reminds the other animals of this trope every time they forget the answer to the teacher's questions, but is shamed when he can't recall what 2+2 equals. At the end, however, when a monkey who had been hitting him on the head with a washboard earlier goes to mock him, the elephant turns out to have stuffed the board down the monkey's overalls and hits him over the head instead, cheerfully repeating that an elephant never forgets as the episode ends. This cartoon (and its title song) from 1935 may have helped codify the trope, or at least helped name it.

* ''WesternAnimation/ColorClassics'': In "An Elephant Never Forgets", the elephant student cheerfully reminds the other animals of this trope every time they forget the answer to the teacher's questions, but is shamed when he can't recall what 2+2 equals. At the end, however, when a monkey who had been hitting him on the head with a washboard earlier goes to mock him, the elephant turns out to have stuffed the board down the monkey's overalls and hits him over the head instead, cheerfully repeating that an elephant never forgets as the episode ends.

* ''WesternAnimation/JourneyBackToOz'': Mombi's EvilPlan is to summon a bunch of green elephants to trample over everything. She literally sings that "An elephant never forgets".

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' episode "It Takes a Thief", Oscar is at the zoo with the twins and Suga Mama when he recounts how, when he was a kid, he and his friends sprayed the elephant with water guns while Suga Mama had warned them that elephants never forget. In the present, that same elephant recognizes Oscar and gets payback by spraying him with water.

* ''WesternAnimation/VivaPinata'': Subverted with Ella Elephanilla, who forgets things all the time. However, there are some episodes where this is flipped.

* The ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode [[Recap/YoungJusticeS3E12NightmareMonkeys "Nightmare Monkeys]]" sees Beast Boy transform into one in the ''[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo Doom Patrol Go!]]'' segment, expressing this sentiment in doing so.

* Mombi's EvilPlan in the film ''Journey Back to Oz'' is to summon a bunch of green elephants to trample over everything. She literally sings that "An elephant never forgets".

* In ''The Pal Patrol'', a book based on ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994'', Simba arrives at Pride Rock an hour later than he promised Timon and Pumbaa because he had to help a herd of elephants who [[BananaPeel slipped on some banana peels]] that a troop of monkeys tossed on the ground. When Simba asks Timon and Pumbaa why the monkeys can't remember to clean up after themselves, Pumbaa tells him that he thought monkeys never forgot. Timon reminds him that it's ''elephants'' who never forget anything.

* In the early {{WesternAnimation/Popeye}} cartoon "Wild Elefinks," Popeye punches an attacking elephant. The elephant chases Popeye for the rest of the cartoon, occasionally stopping to flash back to the injury via thought bubble.

** In ''The Wraisins of Wrath'', the raisins in Fergy and Paulie's pie causes her to be opposite of her normal self and able to remember things. She also remembers an unflattering article Pecky apparently wrote about her, so she chases him around trying to hurt him.
** In ''Ella Forgets to Forget'', Fergy starts a service where Piñatas can confide their secrets in Ella, since she'll forget them anyway. But when Fergy tells her to remember to forget, she ends up ''forgetting'' to forget (hence the title). This somehow makes her remember all the secrets told to her.

* In ''WesterAnimation/TheProudFamily'' episode "It Takes a Thief", Oscar is at the zoo with the twins and Suga Mama when he recounts how, when he was a kid, he and his friends sprayed the elephant with water guns while Suga Mama had warned them that elephants never forget. In the present, that same elephant recognizes Oscar and gets payback by spraying him with water.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': One strip has a dejected elephant sitting at bar, bemoaning that although he drinks and drinks, he never forgets.

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Invoked and subverted. Nangi the elephant is supposed to have an excellent memory due to being an elephant. However, she cannot remember a single detail about Emmitt Otterton despite him coming to her yoga class for six years.

--->"The tick birds are pecking on the elephants. I ''told'' the elephants to forget it, but they ''can't''..." (original spoken version)
--->''The elephants remember, though just what I can't recall.'' (song version)

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'': One episode features Burt, the zoo's elephant, enlisting the help of the penguins to help him escape from the zoo, so he can pay back a man who had tormented him with a kazoo as a boy. He persuades them by lampshading this trope.
-->'''Burt''': "Let's just say... an elephant never forgets!"
** Said payback [[spoiler:turns out to be returning the kazoo Burt stole from the kid, because as Burt points out, while an elephant never forgets, "he always ''forgives''."]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'': In " [[Recap/ThomasTheTankEngineS20E1SidneySings Sydney Sings]]", Sidney starts forgetting things. Whiff tells him that elephants never forget anything, which makes Sidney believe that he has to pick up an elephant from the Animal Park.