As a queer guy I could see playing with the phrase that way, much like how my friends call each other the F word,

My wife used to work with a guy like that, in a supermarket chain.

Around Christmastime he says to my wife…“You’ve heard of elf on the shelf? Well how about…”…and just stopped there, and straddled a long, thin loaf of French bread.

My wife, being the type of ally who would never use that word, just kinda stared at him blankly. She didn’t get it.

Meanwhile when she told me this story I nearly keeled over laughing. Not because of the joke but just because of her reaction to it.