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 like a witch riding a broom.

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.