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.