- Pet monkey
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"The Man with The Yellow Hat" and Curious George, the pet monkey, are enduring characters in books, comics, film and television.
A pet monkey is a monkey kept as a pet.
Monkeys have often been favourite pets of queens such as Catherine de' Medici and Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I.[1] Mao Tse Tung's wife Chiang Ch'ing also had a favoured pet monkey.[1]
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Ship's monkeys
When the British first began to explore Africa, young monkeys were often captured and taken back on board the ship to entertain sailors. For example, a Senegal monkey was kept as a pet by a ship's cook in the 19th century and entertained passengers with its antics.[2] Some were later kept in zoos; many modern captive monkeys in the UK are descended from such Victorian-era monkeys. The same practice is thought to have occurred during the Napoleonic wars; it is rumoured that such practices led to a monkey being washed ashore and hanged in Hartlepool, causing the people of Hartlepool to be nicknamed the Monkey Hangers.
As service animals for the disabled
Some organizations train capuchin monkeys as monkey helpers to assist quadriplegics and other people with severe spinal cord injuries or mobility impairments. After being socialized in a human home as infants, the monkeys undergo extensive training before being placed with a quadriplegic. Around the house, the monkeys help out by doing tasks including microwaving food, washing the quadriplegic's face, and opening drink bottles. For safety and the possibility of negative reinforcement learning, the quadriplegics had the ability to deliver a warning tone or 0.5 second shock to the monkey. As with all primates, monkeys are never to be trusted fully with a human life in an environment they find demanding or where their needs aren't being met. In at least one study, the monkey completed all tasks and negative reinforcement was used only in the learning stage.[3]
Popular culture
Mystic and spiritual master Meher Baba with his pet monkey named Lucky in India (circa 1940) The monkey had been given to him by Princess Norina Matchabelli.In popular culture both actual and fictionalized accounts of pet monkeys are utilized extensively. Monkeys are prevalent in numerous books, television programs, and movies. Sun Wukong (the "Monkey King"), a character who figures prominently in Chinese mythology, is the main protagonist in the classic comic Chinese novel Journey to the West. The television series Monkey, the literary characters Monsieur Eek and Curious George are all examples. The Winged monkeys are prominent characters in The Wizard of Oz.
However, pop culture often incorrectly labels apes, particularly chimpanzees, gibbons, and gorillas, as monkeys. Terry Pratchett makes use of the distinction in his Discworld novels, in which the Librarian of the Unseen University is an orangutan who gets very violent if referred to as a monkey.
Famous pet monkeys
There have been many famous pet monkeys with Tarzan's Cheeta arguably the first famous pet "monkey" although they continued to live in the jungle. Nkima was the original Cheeta-like character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan novels, and in adaptations of the saga to other media, particularly comics. Tarzan and Cheeta have been repeated across all major popular culture mediums including books, films, television, games and comics. Katie, a White-headed Capuchin, played Marcel in the popular U.S. series Friends and also Los Angeles Angels' mascot "Rally Monkey." Finster played Harvey Keitel's pet thief, Dodger in the movie Monkey Trouble. Bubbles was a companion to Michael Jackson and became intertwined in his celebrity and was even a subject of a Jeff Koons sculpture. Frankie the Monkey has been seen in Sean-Paul and Juliane's magic Act all over the country.
Curious George
Curious George is the protagonist of a series of popular children's books by the same name, written by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey.[4] The books feature a curious pet monkey named George, who is brought from his home in Africa by "The Man with The Yellow Hat" to live with him in a big city. Around the world, the adventures of Curious George have been translated in many languages.[5] The character has spawned books in many languages, two television series, two stop-motion animated shorts,[6] an animated film, Curious George, featuring Will Ferrell, a video game and he has been linked with numerous products and companies.
List of fictional pet monkeys
- Literature
- Ampersand is the name of Yorick Brown's pet monkey in the comic book series, Y: The Last Man.
- Chee-Chee is the pet companion of Doctor Dolittle, created by Hugh Lofting.
- Francine Frensky is from the book series and PBS children's show Arthur
- In A Little Princess, the heroine finds and returns Carrisford's pet monkey
- Cartoons
- Abu is the pet in Disney's Aladdin
- Beppo was Superman's pet monkey.
- Bippy, a small monkey that accompanies Timmy Turner in the first Fairly Oddparents movie Abra-Catastrophe
- Boots is the pet explorer in Dora the Explorer
- Chim-Chim is the pet monkey of Speed Racer and his family
- Mr. Teeny on The Simpsons, is Krusty's assistant
- So-So is the pet sidekick of Peter Potamus, from Hanna-Barbera.
- Tenshin is a pet meilin in Ask Dr. Rin!
- Film
- Dodger is the trained pickpocket monkey from Monkey Trouble (1994)
- Bonzo is the pet Monkey that Ronald Reagan takes care of in Bedtime for Bonzo(1951)
- Mona is the pet from Robinson Crusoe on Mars
- Spike is Ace Ventura's monkey companion in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995).
- Monkey is Dante's pet monkey in Grandma's Boy
- Jack the Monkey is Captain Barbossa's pet Capuchin monkey named after Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
- Caesar is Will Rodman's pet chimp in Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
- Games
- In Metal Gear Solid 4, Drebin, the arms-dealer, has a pet monkey named Little Gray. Little Gray enjoys the taste of apples, cola, and cigarette's.
- Television
- "Bloop" or "The Bloop" (named for the unusual sound it made) was the monkey with very long ears from the first season of Lost in Space.
- Klaus was Dieter's touchable monkey on the Saturday Night Live skit "Sprockets"
- Joey and Davey Monkey – on Sesame Street
- Jonny the Monkey is "the most famous celebrity in Kazakhstan" according to Borat in many of his interviews and introduced as Kazakhstan's "most successful actor" by Borat in an opening skit of "Saturday Night Live" in November 2006.[7]
- Marcel was Ross's pet monkey on the TV show Friends.
See also
- Travis, a notable pet who was eventually killed because of violent incidents.
References
- ^ a b John Lloyd, John Mitchinson (2009), "The Monkey-keepers", The Book of the Dead, pp. 243–274, ISBN 9780571244911
- ^ "A monkey on board ship". Reading-book. Nelson Thomas. 1864. http://books.google.com/?id=pMsDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA140&dq=monkey+ship.
- ^ "An Evaluation of Capuchin Monkeys Trained to Help Severely Disabled Individuals". http://www.rehab.research.va.gov/jour/91/28/2/pdf/page91.pdf.
- ^ Curious George . About the Program | PBS KIDS
- ^ "Curious George . About the Reys". http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/parentsteachers/program/reys.html. Retrieved 2008-03-10.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Vanity Fair"
Categories:- Pet mammals
- Monkeys
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