Monkey Coffin???????

At a meeting today, someone said, and I quote:

Now. I’m not an unschooled person. In fact, I daresay I am a font of useless and quirky knowledge, and I would think the term monkey coffin would be something I would know about (And use quite often).

I googled it and found a few places that have it as well, but I’m trying to find the origin of this crazy phrase…

Anyone?

I get the idea behind it mind you, but am looking for who the hell coined it.

Billy Wilder?

Good answer! Good answer! :smiley:

I don’t get the idea behind it. Does it mean large awkward suitcase-like thing? As far as coffins go, one for a monkey would actually be smaller than usual. So what are they talking about?

Yes. They were talking about a big box of stuff they had to lug through a conference center, and , for whatever reason, she referred to it as a Monkey Coffin, and made it seem like it was a natural phrase that everyone uses.

Now, I come from NorthEast Pennsylvania, where we refer to Funeral Homes as ahem corpse houses, so I am not surprised by odd turns of phrase. I’ve just never heard this one before.

Google appears to believe that “monkey coffin” refers to medium-sized audio cabinets, rectangular-shaped and about the right size for a tux-wearing bonobo and a modest bunch of bananas.

I could possibly see a software road warrior adapting this phrase to the wheeled, boxy luggage that they use to haul around their presentation gear. That would be my best guess. But like I said, the most textually present definition on Google seems to describe big speaker cabinets.