"Keep in mind, however, that the Xbox and the Gamecube, both of which technically only have the graphical capabilities of a 3 yard elf PC, are still getting extremely good looking games, and even decent ports of newish PC games."
This comment was added to a thread created by "impseth" entitled "Console design moving away from PC" on the Penny Arcade "Games and Technology" forum.
When author "aeolist" originally coined the phrase, he typed it as "3 yard elf" which caused much confusion to those following the thread. Aeolist later identified it as a typographical error: "It's the most bizarre typo for "year old" possible."
The term, used in the erroneous, is now used to imply a note of disdain in a given subject matter, topic, or thing. It may even be used to implicate the afore mentioned in a direct insult as well.
Both "3 yard elf" and "three yard elf" are grammatically correct usages of this slang. 1) "Who spilled my beer?" "The three yard elf over there."
2) "This game is such a 3 yard elf, I feel dirty even playing it."
3) "Only a three yard elf would use Windows millennium."