" … the boys had more fun really than a box of monkeys, to use a rather uncouth expression."
“Box of monkeys” is uncouth?
Upon thinking about it, I wonder if in the olden days there was a game where you would stuff a bunch of monkeys into a barrel, rolling it, letting the monkeys out, and laughing as they wobble around dizzily and pseudo-drunkenly. If you have a particularly deranged sense of humor and morality, I suppose it sounds like fun.