‘Head got stuck in elephant’s butt’: Australian man's experience in India leaves netizens in splits

Sam said he survived the incident because other worker came to his rescue. (AI-generated image)

An Australian man's account of how he got his head stuck inside the butt of an elephant during volunteer work in India has left netizens both baffled and in splits. The incident came to light after the man, identified only as Sam, shared the story on a podcast.

Sam was a guest caller at the Lu & Jarch podcast where the hosts were inviting stories of unusual places where people got their heads stuck.

"I haven't told this to anybody in 30 years," Sam said. "An elephant's butt."

While hosts Lu and Jarch appeared shocked, he explained, "I was volunteering at an elephant hospital in India. We were washing the elephants, and the woman in front of the elephant accidentally gave the signal to sit and I was at the other end.... My whole head went up for about 20 seconds."

When the hosts asked him how he didn't get squashed if the elephant sat on him, Sam said that others had noticed the incident immediately and signalled the elephant to move before he sat down properly.

"I started screaming, but no one could hear me. But they (other workers) stopped it," he said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lu & Jarch (@luandjarch)

Reacting to the video, which received more than 4.5 lakh likes, one Instagram user commented, "No way would I have ever opened my mouth. What do you mean you screamed? What would’ve happened if he had farted? Talk about a crappy day at work."

Several other users appeared to sympathise with the elephant. "Elephants have great memories. That poor animal is traumatised to this day." "For 30 years it was a secret, Sam... Why??? Think of that elephant... he was traumatised," said another.

A couple of users even recollected watching a video on this decades ago. "I remember seeing this video on funniest videos with my aunt about 30 years ago! And his hair was slicked back after!" said a user, while another added, "I am Indian, and I have seen that video go viral a long time ago. Never realised this would be the guy. On a serious note, he is lucky to be alive and talk about it today."