Is it something with a different name in US as opposed to the rest of the world?
Do they turn stuff in the opposite direction in some places?
Is the puzzlement due to different electrical systems / sockets / switches used in other countries?
Is it something with a different name in US as opposed to the rest of the world? Yes
Do they turn stuff in the opposite direction in some places? No
Is the puzzlement due to different electrical systems / sockets / switches used in other countries? No
Presumably it’s not as simple as being a wrench rather than a spanner?
Does it have anything to do with the metric system?
Presumably it’s not as simple as being a wrench rather than a spanner? That was actually part of it, but yes, there’s a bit more to it than that.
Does it have anything to do with the metric system? No
Monkey wrench, (from a Monkey Island game)?
Hmmm…I was silent because I knew it. I wonder if it was in good sportsmanship to blurt out the answer.
Monkey wrench, (from a Monkey Island game)? Yes!
Care to go into more detail on what the puzzle solution might have been, and why foreign players found it so confusing?
I haven’t got anything more than using that games logic you might end up using a monkey as a wrench.
(To Mahaloth, although I played the Monkey Island games way back, I do not remember this, and I guessed based on the fact “wrench” had already been confirmed, and it’s the kind of thing they’d do. If I had any recollection of it being an actual puzzle I would not have guessed.)
Note I live in the UK and Monkey Wrench is a familiar term.
Maybe because it is properly named after the inventor so some countries think monkey monkey and some think Monke wrench?
Close enough. The tool is only called a monkey wrench in certain dialects of English, so in any other language the pun becomes nonsense.
Like in *Unidentified Flying Oddball" where the astronaut from the future needs a wrench but King Arthur calls a wench over to help him.
Or maybe nothing like that.
Not correct. Etymology is uncertain, but this is certainly not correct. See sections on etymology and false etymology.
Has the question been fully answered? Are there still details left to fathom?
I’m not quite getting it. How did the different name make it difficult to solve? Presumably you click on a picture to select the tool, so would it even be named?
Also, the term “monkey wrench” is actually well known in UK.
It’s been fully answered - you had to use a monkey as a monkey wrench, which only makes sense (for a certain value of “makes sense”) in languages where it’s actually called a monkey wrench (so only in English).
Okay, I missed the “use a monkey AS a wrench” part of the answer.
Here is the moment in the game.
You solve the problem by buttfucking a chimp?
I mean seriously, did none of the makers spot the problem with those graphics?
Really, what problem can’t buttfucking a chimp solve?!