Comments on: Is Curious George really a monkey?

Question: Is Curious George really a monkey?

mausburger — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:25:00 -0800

So, is Curious George really a monkey? Can you identify what species of monkey or ape he might be?

After being seriously over-exposed to Curious George and the admonitions to "Be a good little monkey," I am starting to think that he probably isn't a monkey. For starters, he doesn't have a tail. Isn't that the key distinction between apes and monkeys? Also, isn't he rather large for a monkey? I think he might be a chimpanzee, but in the illustrations and TV show, he's brown, not black.

So, is Curious George really a monkey? Can you identify what species of monkey or ape he might be?

I have a child who is nearly 3 and I clearly have been getting too much George on TV, books, and the computer.

By: Ruki

Ruki — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:30:11 -0800

Wikipedia says he's a chimpanzee.

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:31:18 -0800

He doesn't have a tail, so he cannot be a monkey.

By: Brockles

Brockles — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:33:12 -0800

As pointed out, he stops being a monkey when he has no tail.

Curious George is either

a: A monkey that has had its tail amputated.

or

b: A monkey that has a lazy arsed artist that can't draw tails.

By: winston

winston — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:46:32 -0800

I don't think you can use the size as a factor. As with most cartoon-type illustrations, the relative size of all people/animals/objects is off.

By: oddman

oddman — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:46:57 -0800

In the fictional universe in which Curious George is set some monkeys don't have tails.

By: meerkatty

meerkatty — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:51:46 -0800

My baby book from 30 years ago has my first sentence as: "George is a monkey." Thus, he is a monkey.

By: teg

teg — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:58:54 -0800

Barbary Macaques are pretty much tail-less (they do have stubs), yet they are monkeys. However, George is not likely a Barbary Macaque, as he originally lived in a jungle, not in Gibraltar or the Atlas mountains.

By: HuronBob

HuronBob — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:09:09 -0800

For those that haven't noticed, this is a fictional story.

This question relates well to a conversation I once had with Zack Snyder as we talked about the problems people had with his running zombies. Zack would always answer by saying, "Well, in the REAL zombie world......."

By: bergeycm

bergeycm — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:13:37 -0800

After a thorough investigation of the evidence (one YouTube video), this primatologist concludes that he's an ape. No tail plus knuckle-walking rules out all monkeys, and narrows down the field to chimps and gorillas.

I predict he'll reach sexual maturity and try to kill the Man in the Yellow Hat.

By: seawallrunner

seawallrunner — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:37:30 -0800

George is a cartoon. There, that settles it.

By: MonkeyToes

MonkeyToes — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:44:29 -0800

Curious George is really a monkey. From the publisher:

"Hans and Margret (Rey) were married in Brazil on August 16, 1935, and they moved to Paris after falling in love with the city during their European honeymoon. It was there that Hans published his first children’s book, after a French publisher saw his newspaper cartoons of a giraffe and asked him to expand upon them. Raffy and the Nine Monkeys (Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys in the British and American editions) was the result, and it marked the debut of a mischievous monkey named Curious George."

By: wsp

wsp — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:49:11 -0800

Lots of people who weren't educated to know any better though there was no difference between Chimps and Monkeys in the 1940's.

Lots of people still don't.

Either way, I don't think the artist was going for accuracy here. It's a book for kids, after all.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:50:45 -0800

If I had to pick a species, I would say chimp. But he's really just an odd sort of cartoon species, and one might as well ask what sort of dog Goofy is. Does anyone know, by the way?

By: mausburger

mausburger — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:32:53 -0800

Thanks everyone, for the great answers. I could gratuitously mark all of them as best answer. Let me summarize the arguments.

* Curious George is fictional.
This explanation comes in various forms: it's an alternate reality where monkeys don't have to have tails; and it's meant to entertain children. I kind of buy these arguments, except that the PBS cartoon is designed to teach math and science principles to children. They take great care to make everything else educational, so why not this detail? I suppose there are lots of other unrealistic details, such as George being left unsupervised while the Man in the Yellow Hat goes off to work. This is probably just a plot device so George can get into trouble while being curious. Furthermore, keeping George as monkey allows them to remain faithful to the original books.

* Curious George has a poor costume department.
The Reys didn't know better in the 1940s. This makes sense to me. Also, I think they could have drawn tails if they wanted to. The PBS artists can probably draw tails too, given that they draw things like dinosaur skeletons.

* Curious George is labeled as a monkey; therefore, he is a monkey.
Good point, but I would have a hard time explaining this linguistic convention to my kid.

* You can't use size as evidence for anything because it's a cartoon.
Point well taken, but everything else in the books and TV show has realistic proportions.

To sum up, Curious George is a fictional character in a world where monkeys don't have to have tails and have near-human intelligence, but not verbal ability, because the Reys didn't know better, being artists 1940s rather than primatologists in the 2000s.

By: SPrintF

SPrintF — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:23:42 -0800

I suggest that there is an Untold Story: How Curious George Lost His Tail.

By: nanojath

nanojath — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:38:24 -0800

I think it's pretty obvious he's a juvenile chimp. Compare and contrast: same basically hairless face, hands and feet, same protuding ears. Using monkey as a generic word for a primate is not that weird. There is a variety called a brown or chocolate chimpanzee.

By: vertigo25

vertigo25 — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:18:58 -0800

George is a monkey and he can do things you can't.

By: doppleradar

doppleradar — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:57:23 -0800

All cats are curious. George is curious, therefore George is a cat.

The reasoning in the above is flawed because....

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:59:08 -0800

The Reys (originally named Reyersbach) fled France just before the Nazis invaded. Therefore, somehow, Curious George is a metaphor for a Jew.

By: mausburger

mausburger — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:41:55 -0800

Nanojath: Try calling The Librarian at the Unseen University a monkey. You'll regret it.