A few weeks ago, I wrote about misplaced modifiers. I used “misplaced modifiers” and “dangling modifiers” as synonyms; however, they are not synonyms. My friend Estella Ramirez explains.
There’s an old Groucho Marx joke that goes:
“I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”
If you can get the joke, you can understand misplaced modifiers. The modifier here is “in my pajamas,” and well, the sensible thing to do would be to put that modifier next to “I” as in “In my pajamas, I shot an elephant.” It’s clear that Groucho’s wearing the pajamas. It’s clear, but not funny at all.
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