My parents used to take me to the pet department and tell me it was a zoo.

Connolly’s line is a comic recollection of childhood misdirection: instead of an expensive day out at a real zoo, his parents offer a cheaper substitute—the pet department—and present it as the genuine article. The humor comes from the gap between a child’s trust and an adult’s pragmatic improvisation, as well as the deflation of grand expectations into something ordinary and commercial. It also hints at a working-class ingenuity often present in Connolly’s storytelling: making do, spinning a narrative, and finding laughter in small deceptions that are affectionate rather than cruel.