Monkey's uncle

The term monkey's uncle, most notably seen in the idiom "(Well,) I'll be a monkey's uncle", is used to express complete surprise, amazement or disbelief.{{cite web|url=https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/I%27ll+be+a+monkey%27s+uncle!|title=I'll be a monkey's uncle!|publisher=TheFreeDictionary.com |accessdate=2019-01-09}} It can also be used to acknowledge the impossibility of a situation, in the same way that "pigs might fly" is used. An example is if one says: "I may agree that if two plus two equals five, then I am a monkey's uncle".

History

The phrase was used as early as 1917, in an El Paso, Texas, newspaper advertisement for a play called The Brass Monkey.{{Cite news|date=31 July 1917|title=The New Hoyt Comedy ...... A Brass Monkey|page=2|work=El Paso Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=75035453|access-date=3 Apr 2021|quote='Well. I'm a monkey's uncle. Who ever heard of a brass monkey? There haint no sich animal!' Oh, yes there is!}} It appeared in newspapers several times in the early 1920s, including several other examples in advertisements.{{Cite news|date=24 September 1922|title=Piano sale [Advertisement]|page=16|work=Lexington Herald-Leader|location=Lexington, KY|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=75036432|access-date=3 April 2021|quote=I'm a monkey's uncle if I ever heard of such bargains before.}}{{Cite news|date=7 Feb 1924|title=[Hub Realty Company advertisement]|page=27|work=Los Angeles Evening Express|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/75036898/monkeys-uncle/|access-date=3 Apr 2021|quote=I'm a monkey's uncle if this does not save you $1000}} It was originally a sarcastic remark made by creationists.{{cite web | url=https://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/plain/A3628 | title=A Monkey's Uncle | publisher=h2g2 | accessdate=2019-01-09}} The notion "that [people] were descended from apes was considered blasphemous ... by Darwin's contemporaries", and it was for this reason that the sarcastic phrase came into use.{{cite book

| url=https://archive.org/details/sciencetheologyc0000arde

| title=Science, Theology, and Consciousness: The Search for Unity

| publisher=Praeger

| year=1998

| first=John Boghosian

| last=Arden

| isbn=9780275960322

| url-access=registration

}}

Michael Quinion notes that the phrase "Monkey's uncle" occurs in a parody of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 poem The Song of Hiawatha which was reprinted in James Parton's 1881 The Humorous Poetry of the English Language, and observes: "This may be just an accident of invention, but the date fits".{{cite web|last=Quinion|first=Michael|title=Monkey's Uncle|url=http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-mon3.htm|work=World Wide Words|date=1 January 2005|accessdate=2019-01-09}} I'm a Monkey's Uncle is the title of a 1948 Three Stooges short film. The Monkey's Uncle is a 1965 Walt Disney movie, with the title song written by the Sherman Brothers and performed by Annette Funicello and the Beach Boys. On their 2003 album Reel to Real, The Selecter included a song titled "Monkey's Uncle", criticizing religious dogma that contradicts scientific evidence.

In the MMORPG RuneScape, asking the merchant Zeke about purchasing a dragon scimitar will result in the line of dialogue "Seriously, you'll be a monkey's uncle before you'll ever hold a dragon scimitar." In a humorous twist, purchasing and wielding a dragon scimitar requires completing the quest "Monkey Madness", in which the player must take on the role of an actual monkey's uncle.{{Cite web|title=Dragon scimitar|url=https://runescape.wiki/w/Dragon_scimitar|access-date=2021-08-27|website=RuneScape Wiki|language=en-GB}}

References

External links

{{Wiktionary-inline|I'll be a monkey's uncle}}

Category:English-language idioms

Category:Metaphors referring to monkeys