I'd like to apologise ahead of this post.
I'd like to...
This is going to be another language gripe. Hence the non-apology.

A genuine apology to Lily though, for turning part of an email conversation into a blog post.

Today's whine is about the phrase, 'Elephant in the room'.
Although I understand it's meaning and it's origin, I feel that it's far too abstract. Especially to warrant it's current popularity.

An elephant is just a large thing that it would be hard to ignore, in the suggested place. It would be possible to substitute elephant with anything of great size and the phrase would retain just as much relevance.
We may as well be using the phrase, 'Everybody's ignoring the big thing in the room'.
Please refer to some suggestions below;

Everybody's ignoring the buffalo on the barbecue.
Everybody's ignoring the battleship in the duck pond.
Everybody's ignoring the spaceship on the roof
Everybody's ignoring the rocket ship in the garden
Everybody's ignoring the blue whale in the armchair.
The later being my personal favourite.

If you're the sort of person who uses the elephant in the room phrase, I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage you to try blue whale in the armchair instead.
I think if we all start using my version, we could ease the elephant out of the room!

Alternatively, I could just be ignoring the blue whale in the armchair, that I'm far too easily aggravated by issues of complete unimportance!

You decide