Topsy

Topsy may refer to:

Arts and entertainment

People

Location

Animals

Other uses

Topsy (elephant)

Topsy (circa 1875 – January 4, 1903) was a female Asian elephant put to death at a Coney Island, New York amusement park by electrocution in January 1903.

Born in Southeast Asia around 1875, Topsy was secretly brought into the United States soon thereafter and added to the herd of performing elephants at the Forepaugh Circus, who fraudulently advertised her as the first elephant born in America. During her 25 years at Forepaugh, Topsy gained a reputation as a "bad" elephant and, after killing a spectator in 1902, was sold to Coney Island's Sea Lion Park. When Sea Lion was leased out at the end of the 1902 season and redeveloped into Luna Park Topsy was involved in several well-publicized incidents, attributed to the actions of either her drunken handler or the park's new publicity-hungry owners, Frederick Thompson and Elmer Dundy. Their end-of-the-year plans to hang Topsy at the park in a public spectacle and charge admission were stopped by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The event was cut back to invited guests and press only and Thompson and Dundy agreed to use a more sure method of strangling the elephant with large ropes tied to a steam-powered winch with poison and electrocution planned for good measure. On January 4, 1903 in front of a small crowd of invited reporters and guests Topsy was fed poison, electrocuted, and strangled, the electrocution ultimately killing her. Amongst the press that day was a crew from the Edison Manufacturing movie company who filmed the event. Their film of the electrocution part was released to be viewed in coin-operated kinetoscopes under the title Electrocuting an Elephant.

Topsy (Bob's Burgers)

"Topsy" is the 16th episode of the third season of the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers and the overall 38th episode, and is written by Loren Bouchard and Nora Smith and directed by Tyree Dillihay. It aired on Fox in the United States on March 10, 2013.

Plot

It is the science fair at Wagstaff School, and Louise wants to use the same volcano she made last year, but her substitute teacher, Thomas Edison impersonator Mr Dinkler, with his strict "no volcanoes" rule, demands that she make a project about Edison himself instead. After a tip-off by the school's librarian, she discovers Electrocuting an Elephant, the 1903 film shot by the Edison Studios of the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant. Louise decides to recreate the electrocution to spite Mr Dinkler, with Tina playing Topsy and Gene as Edison, a role he accepts only after Louise allows him to write a musical number for it. Louise also convinces Teddy to make a Van de Graaff generator to create the sparks.