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Everything's Better with Monkeys: Difference between revisions
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See also [[Killer Space Monkey]], [[Maniac Monkeys]], and [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]] (which invokes this trope quite often); also check out [[Everything's Better With Penguins]], [[Turtle Power]], and [[Everything's Better With Dinosaurs]] for the avian and saurian equivalents of this trope. See [[Cymbal
{{examples}}
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** The Ultra-Humanite: Psychic [[Mad Scientist]] who had his brain surgically placed in a mutant gorilla's body.
** Arkhampedia has [http://whysoserious.wikia.com/wiki/Monkeys an article] on the subject.
** Primaul: [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|An intelligent vampire ape with fascist leanings]]. Which is to say, [[Those Wacky Nazis|he's a Nazi]]. His real name is Julius, as a [[Shout
{{indent|80:Note that ''all'' the above examples are from [[DC Comics]]. Around 1940, DC fell head-over-heels in love with gorillas and has never recovered.}}
* [[Marvel Comics]] has at least one example of its own: [[Agents of Atlas (Comic Book)|Gorilla Man]], a soldier of fortune who got turned into an immortal gorilla.
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** And there is also Initiative member Gorilla Girl, The Gibbon, Gorr the Golden Gorilla, and the Beasts of Berlin.
** Julius Schwartz was parodied in ''J2'' by the gangster-turned-talking gorilla Big Julie.
** This doesn't apply to ''every'' ape, though; Giant monster-turned-regular-sized-monster Gorgilla is actually kind of a loser, like the rest of his teammates in the Fin Fang Four. And Moon Boy (of ''and Devil Dinosaur'' fame) is just too goofy to be cool. It's not entirely clear exactly what Moon Boy is, but at one point he's believed to be an example of ''[
* Nearly every superhero during [[The Silver Age of Comic Books]] was turned into a gorilla, at one time or another. The best way to tell if someone's doing an [[Homage]] or [[Affectionate Parody]] of the Silver Age is to see if there are any gorillas around.
** Legend has it that this trend began when a [[DC Comics]] executive noticed sales spikes during months where monkeys and/or apes were on the cover. Whether or not this is true is unknown, but Peter David, in the same forward quoted above, insists that it's true, and even names the exec: Julius Schwartz, creator of [[The Flash|Barry Allen]] and [[Green Lantern (Comic Book)|Hal Jordan]], among others.
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* The Norts in ''Rogue Trooper'' once attempted to counter the Southers' [[Super Soldier|GIs]] with part-human-part-gorillas, who like the GIs could breathe the atmosphere of [[Death World|Nu Earth]]. They failed when Rogue beat their leader in one-on-one combat, [[Asskicking Equals Authority|becoming the new commander]] and persuading them to rebel against their evil masters.
* In ''[[Promethea]]'' there is The Weeping Gorilla.
* The [[Take Over the World|megalomanical]] Doctor Vulter is the villain of the early [[Mickey Mouse]] story ''Mickey Mouse and the [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates|Pirate]] [[Sub Story|Submarine]]'', a Captain Nemo [[Expy]] [[Mad Scientist]] with a [[High
* In ''[[Requiem Chevalier Vampire]]'', Thurim's sex life gets better with gori-mandrills! {{spoiler|For those thoroughly [[Squick|squicked]]: Aiwass actually turns back to her true vampire babe form to do the deed... and if ''this'' repels you, what are you doing reading ''Requiem'' in the first place?}}
* German comic ''[[Nick Knatterton (Comic Strip)|Nick Knatterton]]'' has one story about two chimps who were taught to steal. One of them ends up as Nick's "housemaid", having learned to do that job.
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*** Whatever his character value, King Louie is an example of [[Misplaced Wildlife]]- orangutans are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, not India.
** A few [[Disney Animated Canon]] geeks have a theory: this trope is the ''only'' acceptable reason why there are "[[Misplaced Wildlife|lemurs]]" in the Late Cretaceous period in ''[[Dinosaur]]''.
** [[We Named the Monkey "Jack"|Jack the undead monkey]] from the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' movies.
** The Barrel Full of Monkeys game monkeys make brief appearances in each [[Toy Story]] film (sometimes only during the credits), and they're usually used for quick, silly gags.
*** Taken [[Up to Eleven]] in ''Toy Story 3'' with '''[[Crazy Awesome|DEATH BY MONKEYS]]'''.
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* ''[[Planet of the Apes]]'' (although they tend to make things ''worse'' for humans)
** And the musical thereof on ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]''.
* ''[[
* A scene of ''[[Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull (Film)|Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull]]'' has Mutt Williams getting stuck in a tree, and being discovered by monkeys that due to having the same "hair" as his, decide to show Mutt vine-swinging and then help him attack the [[Dirty Communists]]. Opinions were divided between "it's stupid" ("[http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=45198 I used to joke that you could make any movie better by adding monkeys or explosions to it. I take back the part about the monkeys.]") and "it's fun" ("[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080518/REVIEWS/969461084 What I want is goofy action--lots of it. (...) And throw in lots of monkeys.]").
** Third opinion: [[Rule of Funny|friggin hilarious]].
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** Played by the greatest of all (human) simian impersonators, Rick Baker. Baker also essayed the roles of King Kong in the 1976 remake, and Sidney the Gorilla in the Lily Tomlin vehicle ''The Incredible Shrinking Woman''.
* Inspector Clouseau's first scene in ''The Return of [[The Pink Panther]]'' proves that his accent gets even funnier when a "minkey" is on the scene, as he argues with an accordion-playing beggar about his pet.
* [
* In the screwball comedy ''Monkey Business'' (not to be confused with a [[Marx Brothers]] film which has nothing to do with monkeys aside from its title), a monkey breaks into a chemistry lab and accidentally creates a batch of [[Screwball Serum]].
* The monkey sidekick in ''[[Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs]]''.
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** Also "My Monkey," about the narrator [http://www.jonathancoulton.com/wiki/index.php/My_Monkey projecting thoughts and feelings onto his monkey butler].
*** Also, "De-Evolving", where the narrator starts ''turning into'' a monkey.
**** For that matter, "Skullcrusher Mountain" practically embodies this trope, when the mad scientist narrator attempts to woo the object of his affection with the gift of a pony, [[Mix
*** This trope plays into [[Jonathan Coulton|JoCo]]'s music so much that when he posted "Space Doggity" - a song about the first dog in space - to his blog, he wrote, "I almost went with the first monkey in space, but I didn't want to be accused of [[Discussed Trope|going overboard with the monkeys]]."
* Ookla the Mok's monkey rock opera, Smell No Evil. All of it.
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* ''[[Rifts (Tabletop Game)|Rifts]]'' features Ape-Boys (genetically-enhanced apes and monkeys) as a playable race.
* The fourth set of ''[[Monsterpocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Monsterpocalypse]]'', "Monsterpocalypse Now", introduced the faction "Empire of the Apes".
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' has the [[Mix
** [[Memetic Mutation|Monkey bees... my God.]]
** Monkey Bees DO NOT make everything better.
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* ''[[Freedom Force]] vs. the 3rd Reich'' has the Kill-a-Rillas, half-human, half gorilla experiments created by Bliztkrieg.
* Apparently, the developers of ''[[God Hand]]'' decided that the hilarity of gorillas was only increased by training them in the art of Lucha Libre, and was increased to nearly fatal levels by throwing in groin shots complete with a laugh track. It worked, mostly due to the fact that the whole game is so absurd that they don't seem too weird in comparison.
* Monkeys feature heavily in an early part of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]'', and show up later. One subboss is even a baboon (acting under pest control).
** Likewise it's necessary to rescue an innocent monkey from implied death in ''[[The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask (Video Game)|Majora's Mask]]'', and in ''[[The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past (Video Game)|A Link to the Past]]'', you need to pay a monkey to open a dungeon door for you.
** A similar monkey appears in ''[[The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening|Link's Awakening]]'' to perform essentially the same function... and to fight the [[Super Mario Bros|Chain Chomp]] you happen to be walking.
* Naturally, as they feature a lot in the Films, monkeys are all over ''[[Lego Adaptation Game (Video Game)|Lego Indiana Jones]]''.
* The original ''[[Mega Man (Video Game)|Mega Man]]'' series had Buster Rod G. of the Genesis Unit. Both he and Hanumachine from ''[[Mega Man Zero (Video Game)|Mega Man Zero]]'' are [[Shout
** ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' series had Spark Mandrill and Soldier Stonekong. More recently there's Purprill the Pseudoroid from ''[[Mega Man ZX (Video Game)|Mega Man ZX]]''.
** ''[[Mega Man Legends (Video Game)|Mega Man Legends]]'' have the recurring character of Data, a cute robot monkey sidekick.
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater]]'' included the minigame entitled "Snake VS Monkey". It's almost exactly what it sounds like. It's a [[Shout
** ''[[Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots]]'' has a monkey in the actual game - apparently the character it hangs out with wasn't "interesting enough" on his own. Fortunately Raiden's [[Motion Capture]] actor was pretty good at imitating a monkey, and Kojima liked the imitation enough that he decided to [[Throw It In]].
* ''[[Metal Slug]] 3'' allows the player to get a cute monkey armed with a deadly Uzi as a sidekick. ''[[Metal Slug]] 4'', in the other hand, allows the player to ''transform'' into said cute machine gun-wielding monkey.
* ''[[Monkey Island]]''. Better yet, '''[[Look Behind You!|three-headed]]''' [[Running Gag|monkey]].
** ''[[The Curse of Monkey Island (Video Game)|The Curse of Monkey Island]]'' (the third in the series), obviously taking advantage of this trope, advertised having more monkeys in it than the previous two games combined.
*** Also the awesome [[Logo Joke|parody]] of the THX logo in it with increasingly louder monkey sounds and the ominous text "The monkeys are listening".
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* Well not everything is better with monkeys, as the end of this [[Nightmare Fuel|nightmare fueled]] video should prove: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRMEGMZcF2Y&feature=recommended\]
* In [[Doctor Steel (Music)|Doctor Steel]]'s propaganda video, "Building a Utopian Playland", Dr. Steel talks about his plans for world domination, then distracts his audience with a monkey puppet, saying, "Now... who wants to see the dancing monkey!"
* The [[SCP Foundation (Wiki)|SCP Foundation]] disagrees with this trope; the two non-human primate SCPs are a [[Cymbal
** Possibly played straight (at least for readers) with [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-050 SCP-050], a monkey statue that automatically appears in the possession of [[Hilarity Ensues|the person to play the best prank]].
* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' plays this trope straight with the Ape superheroes Tachyon, Massive, Charity, Bounder, and The Shape. They invert the trope with the Ape supervillains Guido the Killer Chimp and Brainy Ape, not to mention the sinister [[Evil Genius|Doctor Simian]] and his [[Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters|"ape liberation" organization, Prime 8]].
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* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has Momo, a flying lemur [[Mix and Match Critter]], for comic relief and as the [[Team Pet]].
** There's also a [[Continuity Nod|recurring]] incredibly ugly ruby-encrusted monkey statue. It creeps the hell out of Katara, but Iroh thinks it's "handsome" enough to buy.
* ''[[Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot (Animation)|Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot]]'' the CEO of the company that created the titular boy robot had a sidekick/business partner who was a sarcastic talking monkey. Voiced by [[Hey, It's That Voice!|''The Drew Carey Show's'' Mimi]], no less.
* ''[[Camp Lazlo]]'' stars a monkey.
* ''[[Captain Simian and The Space Monkeys (Animation)|Captain Simian and The Space Monkeys]]''
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* The [[Walter Lantz]] cartoon characters Meany, Miny and Moe.
* [[Babar]] has Zephyr the monkey as Babar's best friend. It occasionally features other monkeys and apes as well.
* The ''[[Phineas and Ferb (Animation)|Phineas and Ferb]]'' opening theme mentioned "giving a monkey a shower." They [[Opening Shout
* ''[[Tenko and The Guardians of The Magic]]'' had Kiddles the monkey.
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* As they're all improvised it gets hard to really pin it down, but around 30% of Ross Nobles shows will involve monkeys.
* The Penn Jillette radio show had a regular feature called "Monkey Tuesday", in which monkey news and monkey-related discussion would open the show, and callers would call in with stories of their personal encounters with primates. It all started with a story about a monkey and a dwarf ([http://www.pennfans.net/view/Audio_Archive/PennRadio/The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2006.04.11/ part 1 near the end], [http://www.pennfans.net/view/Audio_Archive/PennRadio/The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2006.04.12/ part 2], and [http://www.pennfans.net/view/Audio_Archive/PennRadio/The.Penn.Jillette.Radio.Show.2006.04.18/ next week it was a trend].
* Freeware 3D program Blender has the head of a monkey (named "Suzanne," as a [[Shout
* Plans for ''[[The Haunted Mansion|The Mystic Manor]]'' at [[Disney Theme Parks|Hong Kong Disneyland]] involve a mischevious monkey among the supernatural stuff.
* [http://www.coolstuff.se/Blasapa_Nageltorkare Here]. A monkey for blow-drying fingernails after you've applied nailpolish.
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* The monkey god Hanuman was [http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2008/06/07/20080607monkeygod-ON.html named] chairman of an Indian business school. No, seriously.
* Due to the depressing nature of the credit crunch, the front page of the BBC website currently reads "Sick of hearing about stock slides? Never fear, we have the solution - [http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh305/rissaofthesaiyajin/monkeywaiters.png monkey waiters."]
* The [[Los Angeles]] Angels of Anaheim introduced an unofficial mascot in 2000 which they dubbed the "[
* Oh dear, the Lake Superior State University has added the word to their "List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness", specifically because of this trope. I think we broke it [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/ap_on_re_us/banned_words\].
* ''[[The Daily Show]]'' had a lot of fun with this one in relation to Congress' [http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219507&title=Felonious-Monkeys "monkey bite bill"].
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[[Category:Everythings Better With Indexes]]
[[Category:Everythings Better With Monkeys]]
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