We never thought something as ludicrous as an elephant-shaped lamp could lead to trouble. But Brian's in detention all because of a ceramic, non-functioning elephant lamp.

Basically, he took shop class because he thought it would be easy. How wrong he was… Brian's more of the cerebral type. He excels at considering projects that exist in a more mental realm, not in the physical world. So, he ends up making an elephant lamp for shop class that doesn't work: You pull the trunk but the light doesn't come on like it's supposed to. It highlights Brian's lack of physical competence—something that distinguishes him from Bender.

When they argue about the elephant lamp, Bender's offended that Brian thought shop would be easy. Brian defends his own intellectual prowess in other areas:

BRIAN: Bender, did you know without trigonometry there'd be no engineering?

BENDER: Without lamps, there'd be no light!

Touché. So, Brian's F in shop wrecks his GPA and spurs him into an ill-conceived suicide attempt that never really happens. He brings a flare gun into school and it goes off in his locker—landing him in detention.

So, what's the greater meaning of the elephant lamp, if anything? For Brian's life, it's the fly in the ointment, the one thing ruining everything else—or at least, it seems like that. You could even say that it has some sort of symbolic importance, like it's the proverbial "elephant in the room," the big thing in Brian's life that he hasn't mentioned yet.

Obviously, it's an absurd way to ruin your GPA—a non-functioning elephant lamp—and it just adds insult to injury. But, on another level, it's the thing that brought him to detention, the place where he'll learn a deeper lesson than anything he's learned in school. It's got a providential, serendipitous quality to it.