Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Monkey References

Driven by curiosity, I went looking for other uses of the Dancing Monkey metaphor, and found fewer than I'd imagined.

We may need to credit the Hon. William Hue with original coinage of "the dancing monkey" as used in a courtroom. I'm sure he'll be amazed to have that be his most lasting contribution to world culture.

Here's one about the nomination of Justice Roberts:

Roberts wrote that the Metro's mandatory arrest policy was not unconstitutional in part because it would not have been "regarded as an unlawful search or seizure under the common law when the Amendment was framed," that is, under the law as it stood in 1791.

The guy's a loony douchebag and a tool of the State, but that irrelevant. Let's face it, his nomination isn't about the court. Bush said it was going to take him a month to decide on a nominee. He pulled this guy out of thin air to distract from the fact his Chief Advisor is a traitor, and the pres corps is getting aggressive because they saw one of their own to go to jail over it.

I'm surprised he didn't put him in a fucking gorilla suit, and direct the press to "Look at the monkey! Look at the funny monkey!"


INCITE connects another reference:
Textbook case of the Wookie Defense. Saddam made money from scam Y therefore scam X ceases to be of any relevance. Look at the monkey! What were we talking about? Damn that Kucinich is a crafty one!


The Wiki article referenced above cites TWO uses of the Chewbaca defense in Episode 214 of South Park:
In the second use of the Chewbacca Defense, he ends by suddenly producing a monkey and shouting "Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey!" causing a juror's head to explode.

BlackBeardStruck wrote in 2004:
He [Bush] used to hate people from California until they were brainwashed by the republican monkey boy named Arnold – here, look at the monkey, look at the monkey!


Pickle and Chips has a comment from 2003 that says:

In that case the choice AT THE START should have been to pick the country with poorest human rights record and/or with a known tendency to suppress resistance in a violent manner. At the moment this is just convenient restrospective justification. "Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey."

Comment by Poet's Chemistry may have the origin:
The Dancing Monkeys

A PRINCE had some Monkeys trained to dance. Being naturally great mimics of men's actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them upon the stage. The Monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing and became (as indeed they were) Monkeys instead of actors. Pulling off their masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of the audience.

-"Not everything you see is what it appears to be."-

http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?4&TheDancingMonkeys


The references in Eugene O'Neill's "The Great God Brown" don't quite fit.

We will leave further exploration to William Safire.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have to feel that we are in the eye of the storm, but without any weather forecast to tell us when the storm will roll in again.

Same feeling of uneasy quiet. Have toadmit as well to a nagging concern over what Botre will be doing.

Waiting for a decision is haed. If it is going to be 2-1, either way, then it may take less time than a 3-0 due to the extensive wordsmithing that an unanimous decision would require.
pcrosby

Anonymous said...

pcrosby,

Interesting thought, 4-5 weeks before Attorneys filings required. That puts it after the Tour start.

Will the Arbs wait until after the Tour before announcing a decision? Would they be more likely to announce one decision as opposed to the other during the Tour?

Does anyone care to speculate?

Regards,

Ken (EnvironmentalChemistry.com) said...

The ultimate irony would be if the results of these hearings became a monkey dance that diverts the world's attention away from the TDF.

Anonymous said...

How about this Aesop's Fable:

The Dancing Monkeys

A PRINCE had some Monkeys trained to dance. Being naturally great mimics of men's actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them upon the stage. The Monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing and became (as indeed they were) Monkeys instead of actors. Pulling off their masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and ridicule of the audience.

-"Not everything you see is what it appears to be."-

http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?4&TheDancingMonkeys

Poet's Chemistry

Anonymous said...

I went to Law School at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1980's. I and 40 of my classmates were introduced to the "Dancing Monkey" strategy in our 8 credit practical course by a veteran criminal law attorney. I used the metaphor when I became a lawyer and it has been used a number of times in my court, by attorneys from both sides of criminal cases and to a lessor extent, by civil attorneys.

I didn't invent the phrase.I'm not that smart or clever, but if I brought it to the lexicon, I have no problem with it. I think Poet's
Chemistry identified its geneses but again, the thought didn't orginate with me.

As used in law, it has nothing to do with measuring the prejudice of something as it is compared to its probative value because if it were too prejudicial, it couldn't be used at all. It is taking advantage of something sensational (it HAS to be at least marginally relevant as well because in the event it wasn't, it would be excluded as well and the strategy wouldn't work)and using that evidence to distract the fact finder from other more relevant evidence.

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Ken (EnvironmentalChemistry.com) said...

I'm so glad TBV has a judge as a regular contributor because it has added a fantastic opportunity to learn a little bit about the strategy of lawyers and the inner workings of the process. While I hope I personally never have to be part of any court process (beyond being a jury member), this has been a very educational experience.

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Anonymous said...

Not to be a wet blanket, but we hardly want the Dancing Monkey to become the Dancing Monkey of this site.
--marc

strbuk said...

That's right Marc, nor do we want the "Emperor with No Clothes", which seems somehow akin to that now famous "dancing monkey".

str

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DBrower said...

Dear anon 8:12 and 8:46,

take the hints.

TBV

Anonymous said...
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snake said...

They're trolls; they'll never take a hint. It's a game to them. It's like fishing (hence the name "troll"). They post inflammatory messages in the hope of getting angry responses.

Since a response is exactly what they're fishing for, the best thing to do is to delete without even acknowledging. It's like flushing the toilet, no need to let anybody know about it.

They are very hard to beat at their stupid game. Trolls are persistent, and they don't have to come up with new material. There are always new fish in the pond who'll take the same old bait.

See Wikipedia "troll (internet)" for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

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