# Origin of 1000 Monkeys on Typewriters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140 "2018-09-11T01:46:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/1 "2018-09-11T01:46:56Z")
What is the origin of the hypothetical 1000 monkeys on 1000 typewriters (give or take) randomly typing out the encyclopedia, or such? Where does this come from? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/2 "2018-09-11T01:49:37Z")
A dude named [Émile Borel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Borel). ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/3 "2018-09-11T01:51:11Z")
AFAIK the original quote is from an essay by French mathematician (and politician) Émile Borel. ETA: Ninja’d as I looked for a cite! Well done, **Johnny Bravo**! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/4 "2018-09-11T01:53:18Z")
Sometimes we monkeys get lucky. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/5 "2018-09-11T02:05:36Z")
Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/6 "2018-09-11T02:34:10Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet? 😃 No. Actually this is the blurst of times for them. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/7 "2018-09-11T02:41:33Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet? 😃 No, but you can find some of their works on sale at airport bookstores everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/8 "2018-09-11T03:03:41Z")
Here’s Bob Newhart. > [@](#): > > Harry, I’m gonna check post 14, see if he’s got anything… ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/9 "2018-09-11T03:27:12Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet? 😃 Only at some of the translation bureaus I’ve worked with. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/10 "2018-09-11T04:42:58Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > Thanks! So… have the monkeys won out, yet? 😃 Results of a pilot study with fewer monkeys were disappointing. > [@](#): > > In 2003, lecturers and students from the University of Plymouth MediaLab Arts course used a £2,000 grant from the Arts Council to study the literary output of real monkeys. They left a computer keyboard in the enclosure of six Celebes crested macaques in Paignton Zoo in Devon in England for a month, with a radio link to broadcast the results on a website.[10] > > Not only did the monkeys produce nothing but five total pages[11] largely consisting of the letter S, the lead male began by bashing the keyboard with a stone, and the monkeys continued by urinating and defecating on it. The experiment was, however, declared a success as performance art. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/11 "2018-09-11T13:54:34Z")
^ Macaques? PFFFT! What do _they_ know? They’re the Peter Benchley of the primate world! ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/12 "2018-09-11T15:03:14Z")
See Russell Maloney’s 1940 _New Yorker_ short story, “Inflexible Logic.” Marvelous comic take on the Infinite Monkeys Theory. [http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/Texts/logic.htm](http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/Texts/logic.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/13 "2018-09-11T16:13:26Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > See Russell Maloney’s 1940 _New Yorker_ short story, “Inflexible Logic.” Marvelous comic take on the Infinite Monkeys Theory. > > [Inflexible Logic by Russell Maloney (1940)](http://nsmn1.uh.edu/dgraur/Texts/logic.htm) I first read that in the 1958 anthology _Fantasia Mathematica_, which I cannot recommend highly enough. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2018, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-1000-monkeys-on-typewriters/821140/14 "2018-09-11T17:21:58Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I first read that in the 1958 anthology _Fantasia Mathematica_, which I cannot recommend highly enough. Thanks for the tip; just bought a copy. Clifton Fadiman curated the BEST anthologies!