A Word About Our Name

Why "Monkey See"?

Monkeys: You can study them to learn about human behavior, or you can dress them up in funny outfits and have them deliver telegrams. Which is to say, they lie exactly at the intersection of anthropology and comedy. (See Figure A.)

Figure A: Monkeys: Bringing research and humor together.

 

That spot — the intersection of high and low — is the territory this blog stakes out. You can, after all, learn a lot about people from what they choose to watch, listen to and read. You can also have a lot of fun viewing YouTube videos of local news anchors sneezing in the middle of a broadcast.

Of course, the name also plays off the famous three monkeys — the ones who see, hear and speak no evil. Because to us, despite a whiff at times of guilty pleasure, there's not much in the pop universe that feels "evil."

Our take: The more we can appreciate a variety of tastes, the better the conversations we can have. Our goal: to examine the sights and sounds of our media-drenched culture and "speak" about what it all means with our fellow curious creatures.

Then there's "Monkey see, monkey do," a motto of which we've adopted only half. Because while you'll see a lot out there, part of being a more discerning pop-culture consumer is figuring out how to sort through it all and find what you like.

The good news: We're here to help.

-- Linda Holmes and Trey Graham

3:27 PM ET | 08-25-2008 | permalink

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