# DONKEY Kong **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 22, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960 "2003-10-22T20:18:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/1 "2003-10-22T20:18:01Z")
I laughed immeasurably the other night as I watched ESPN Monday Night Countdown in a bar. Because of the noise, the closed captioning was on and a reference to Donkey Kong was typed as _“Donkey Congress”_. Which is funny on several levels. The laughter ended abruptly however, when my husband and I were completel stumped as to why Donkey Kong is called Donkey Kong, when there is less than one donkey anywhere in the game. Kong is self explanatory…and Monkey Kong is damn near appropriate, and yet, it’s called Donkey Kong. Why. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/2 "2003-10-22T20:40:54Z")
From [Gamespot’s History of Donkey Kong](http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/dk_history/p02-01.html): > [@](#): > > From the ashes of Radarscope came Miyamoto’s first video game. He didn’t know what to call it, but the theme seemed to be a variation on the old King Kong movies. And since the game would be played in English-speaking arcades, he needed another word to describe his new villain. Something that described how stubborn and inflexible this creature was. Something that just wouldn’t do what it was told. He already had one animal. What other animals were known for being notoriously hard to deal with? Mules… camels… donkeys… ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/3 "2003-10-22T20:46:38Z")
According to _The Ultimate History of Video Games_, the creator of the game, Sigeru Miyamoto wanted the game to have an English name, because his company, Nintendo, was still attempting to penetrate the American market. Miyamoto hardly spoke any english, so he consulted a Japanese-English dictionary. He wanted to call the game something along the lines of “Stubborn Gorilla”, which makes sense. Unfortunately, the dictionary gave him the word ‘donkey’ as a synonym of ‘stubborn’, and ‘kong’ as a synonym for ‘gorilla’. The rest, as they say, is history. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/4 "2003-10-22T20:47:03Z")
Thanks but, jeez. How about BIG GIANT APES? They’re pretty hard to deal with. It seems silly to create a giant monkey for a game and then look for another animal to call it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/5 "2003-10-22T20:53:39Z")
[Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/donkeykong.asp) on the origin of the name “Donkey Kong”. ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/6 "2003-10-22T21:29:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*[Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/donkeykong.asp) on the origin of the name “Donkey Kong”. \*\* Thanks for the Snopes link. An interesting read, and certainly possibly correct, although their argument against the mistranslation story seems to be along the lines of “well, we haven’t heard that it’s not true, but we haven’t heard that it definitively _is_ true, either, so we’re going to go with ‘not’”. The book I referenced above, _The Ultimate History of Video Games_, by Steven L. Kent, was published in 2001. The Snopes article was last updated in Feb. of 2001, so it’s quite possible the book came out after the Snopes article. Although the story about the mistranslation isn’t a direct quote from Miyamoto, he _was_ clearly interviewed for the book and is quoted throughout. I realize that that in and of itself doesn’t prove that the story is true, but I’m assuming that he was questioned about the origin of the name. Again, I understand that that’s not proof, but the Snopes article isn’t proof enough for me that it’s _not_ true, so I’m standing by the book. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/7 "2003-10-22T21:38:19Z")
**Anamorphic** : What kind of half-assed dictionary would give `donkey' as a translation or synonym for `stubborn’? That would not only involve a rather abstruse cultural translation but, at the same time, a complete incompetence in actual linguistic translation. The authors wouldn’t be capable of saying that Americans consider donkeys to be stubborn and, at the same time, thinking `donkey' was an acceptable *synonym* for `stubborn’. It would be equivalent to someone being capable of deriving the quadratic equation but being unable to add two and two. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/8 "2003-10-22T21:39:27Z")
How high can you get? ---
**Author:** ![Anamorphic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anamorphic/32/3057_2.png) [@Anamorphic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anamorphic)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/9 "2003-10-22T21:54:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > \*\ ***Anamorphic** : What kind of half-assed dictionary would give `donkey' as a translation or synonym for `stubborn’? \*\* Erm, a half-assed one. 🙂 Look, I’m not disagreeing with you that it seems pretty silly, but that doesn’t make it impossible. The book I’m quoting from seems to be a pretty reliable source, and the author clearly interviewed the man in question. Again, I understand that that doesn’t make it irrefutable, but it does a better job of proving to me that it could quite possibly be true than Snopes does in proving to me that it’s absolutely not true. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2003, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/10 "2003-10-22T22:06:53Z")
You would be amazed at what the Japanese can come up with when trying to write English. Just check out [www.engrish.com](http://www.engrish.com) Or what I found on a Japanese corporate Web site. I don’t have the URL handy, but I think it was some sort of telecommunications company. I wrote this down because I thought it was funny: “We make human communication with a lot of way. communication become to be entertainment for our good life. we can give you a new type confort, and you must feel so nice. that is out satisfaction.” (Spelling and capitalization left intact as seen on the site) ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/11 "2003-10-23T01:36:39Z")
Thank Og it wasn’t called _Ass Kong_. I think that is the name of an adult “toy”. ---
**Author:** ![Rabid\_Squirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Rabid\_Squirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rabid_Squirrel)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donkey-kong/208960/12 "2003-10-23T01:58:30Z")
Incidently, putting “ass kong” into Google gave [this site](http://www.journalfen.net/interests.bml?int=ass+kong) (safe for work).