# Chaos of a down

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 25, 2005, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141 "2005-12-25T06:20:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141/1 "2005-12-25T06:20:43Z")

</div>

'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings… or more.

I was IMing one of my girlfriends and when I said something, she typed back “I’m down.” I went into sympathetic mode and asked what’s got her down. She answered it’s down with a positive meaning, like yo homie I be down wid dat. I said how many meanings does this word have? I was thinking of the Beatles and I quoted “You tell lies thinking I can’t see / You don’t cry 'cause you’re laughing at me / I’m down.”

Think of smacking a pillow against the wall until it bursts and the room is filled with drifting light fluffy feathers. That’s a fairly good metaphor for my state of consciousness. “I’m down.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141/2 "2005-12-25T07:04:50Z")

</div>

I think I’d need subtitles. “I’m down” means, to me, “I’m blue.” Guess I really _am_ an old fogey! 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141/3 "2005-12-25T18:09:03Z")

</div>

I was particularly confused, as I thought the thread title was “chaos of a _clown_.”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141/4 "2005-12-25T20:22:55Z")

</div>

Q: How do you get down from an elephant?

A: Silly, you get down from a duck!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141/5 "2005-12-25T20:34:17Z")

</div>

If you’ve ended an airplane flight, you might proclaim, like Pastor Rod Flash, “I’m down, trailing clouds of glory, I’m down!”

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chaos-of-a-down/337141/6 "2005-12-26T03:53:03Z")

</div>

> [@phouka](#):
>
> Q: How do you get down from an elephant?
> 
> A: Silly, you get down from a duck!

What, you mean like, use the duck as a footstool? Like you step off the elephant and onto the duck, and then you get down, right?

This is how a friend of mine responded to this joke, many years ago. I thought for a moment, and then said, “Yes. That’s exactly it.”