Monkey See, Monkey Do
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Monkey see, monkey do is a
pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...
-style saying that was already called an "old saying" in 1900, and assumed to be an old saying in the 1890s.


Meaning

The saying refers to learning a process without understanding why it works. Another definition implies the act of imitation, usually with limited knowledge or concern for the consequences.


Versions

Versions of the saying that appeared in U.S. commercial advertisements for shoes and other apparel in the 1890s suggested it was popularly established by then, and an article in ''Sharpe's London Magazine'' half a century earlier had pointed to the monkeys' habit of mimicry: "Whatever monkeysees men do, he must affect to do the like himself."


In folklore

The
West African West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Ma ...
folk tale Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used va ...
of a peddler whose wares are ransacked by monkeys that proceed to imitate his gestures of outrage has been retold by Esphyr Slobodkina in '' Caps for Sale (A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business)'' and by Baba Wagué Diakité in ''The Hatseller and the Monkeys''. Diakité notes that versions of his tale also are found in
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
,
Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, and England, and indeed have existed in Europe since the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
.


In culture

Jazz singer-songwriter Michael Franks used the saying as the subject and title of his song "Monkey See—Monkey Do" on his 1976 album '' The Art of Tea''. A television show of the same name aired on
PBS Kids Sprout Universal Kids was an American children's cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel launched on September 26, 2005, as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented offshoot of PBS ...
from 2010 to 2013 and later on
Qubo Qubo ( ; stylized as qubo) was an American television network for children between the ages of 5 and 14. Owned by Ion Media, it consisted of a 24-hour free-to-air television network often mentioned as the "Qubo channel" (available as a digital ...
and was produced by Title Entertainment and Smartoonz, the company also behind Sprout's Nina's Little Fables. In 2016, Scottish writer-comedian
Richard Gadd Richard Gadd (born 11 May 1989) is a Scottish actor, comedian, and writer, best known for creating and starring in the 2024 Netflix drama series '' Baby Reindeer'', which was based on his one-man dark comedy show of the same name. Gadd won three ...
titled his award-winning
Edinburgh Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...
show ''Monkey See Monkey Do'', which is about his experience as a male victim of
sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...
. The phrase is also doubly
pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...
d in the 1968 film ''
Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...
'', when the monkeys implicitly imitate human use of the phrase, when inverting it into "Human see, human do". In 1994, the (paraphrased) saying was used in a most literal sense when a juvenile
spider monkey Spider monkeys are New World monkeys belonging to the genus ''Ateles'', part of the subfamily Atelinae, family Atelidae. Like other atelines, they are found in tropical forests of Central and South America, from southern Mexico to Brazil. The g ...
escaped from its exhibit at the Henson Robinson Zoo in
Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its population was 114,394 at the 2020 United States census, which makes it the state's List of cities in Illinois, seventh-most populous cit ...
. The monkeys, a non-swimming species believed to be afraid of water, were exhibited in the open air on a small island in the middle of a lagoon, until a 1-year-old monkey unexpectedly jumped into the water and swam to shore. The monkey was quickly recaptured, but zookeepers knew that having seen the juvenile monkey successfully escape the island, the adult monkeys would soon try it themselves. The monkeys were quickly moved to a new exhibit with a cage, where they remain today.


See also

*
Cargo cult science ''"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character'' is an edited collection of reminiscences by the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman. The book, published in 1985, covers a variety of instances in Feynman's li ...
*
Echolalia Echolalia is the unsolicited repetition of vocalizations made by another person; when repeated by the same person, it is called palilalia. In its profound form it is automatic and effortless. It is one of the echophenomena, closely related to ...
*
Hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...
*
Imitation Imitation (from Latin ''imitatio'', "a copying, imitation") is a behavior whereby an individual observes and replicates another's behavior. Imitation is also a form of learning that leads to the "development of traditions, and ultimately our cu ...
*
Mimic octopus The mimic octopus (''Thaumoctopus mimicus'') is a species of octopus from the Indo-Pacific region. Like other octopuses, it uses its chromatophores to disguise itself. It is noteworthy for being able to impersonate a wide variety of other marine ...
* Mirror neurons in monkeys *
Three wise monkeys The are a Japanese pictorial Maxim (philosophy), maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The three monkeys are * , covering his eyes * , covering his ears * , covering his mouth. Lafcadio Hearn re ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monkey See, Monkey Do Adages Metaphors referring to monkeys 18th-century neologisms 18th-century quotations Quotations Fictional monkeys