The monk: Funniest thing, drunk, or did he bump the skunk?

Cafe Society
1

I went to the animal fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair…

And then we come to the monk(ey). When I learned this song in – What? Second grade…?

The funniest thing was the monk
He sat on the elephant’s trunk.

But Wikipedia says

The monkey he got drunk
And fell on the elephant’s trunk

The first link I clicked on when searching for the lyrics said:

The monkey bumped the skunk,
And sat on the elephant’s trunk

Also, the way I learned it…

The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
And that was the end of the monk
The monk! The monk! The monk! The Monk!

Wiki and the lyrics site ask What became of the monk? instead of stating that the monkey was killed messily. (Or at least propelled a distance or height by the sneeze, such that he met his end.)

It struck me as cruel that we would laugh at the monkey who gets crushed by a pachyderm (the way I learned the song). I only found one link when I searched for ‘the funniest thing was the monk’, so it looks like the version I learned isn’t well known. The monkey bumping the skunk lyric sounds odd to me because of the extra repeated vowel sound in ‘bump’. It may have been frowned upon to teach eight-year-olds a song featuring a character that is drunk.

So what version did you learn?

2

I learned the drunk version in the early 80s thanks to my Disney Children’s Favorites record.

3

We definitely learned “The monkey he got drunk” version that ends with the monkey’s horrible demise.

In school, I heard an obscene version passed around, started something like:

"The monkey he was sick
He sucked on the elephant’s … "

4

Here’s the way I learned it:

*I went to the animal fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair

The monkey he got drunk
And fell on the elephant’s trunk
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees
And what became of the monk
The monk! The monk! The monk! The Monk!*

Also, it seems to me that “bumping the skunk” sounds like a euphemism for having sex. :smiley:

5

I think the version I heard was a mix of the versions in the OP:
The monkey he got drunk
and sat on the elephant’s trunk
The last three lines were what Johnny L.A. had.

6

I learned this:
The funniest was the monk
He sat on the elephant’s trunk.
…And what became of the monk?

Early 70’s, Upstate New York.

I heard the drunk/end of the monk version later on a kids’ record.

7

I think someone’s conflating Sloop John B.

8

“Bumping the skunk”. Is that what you kids called it?

9

The monkey he got drunk
and sat on the elephant’s trunk.
The elephant sneezed
And fell on his knees,
And that was the end of the monk!

No repeat of “the monk”. And the second line is “ALL the birds and the beasts were there.”

That’s how it was printed in our grade school music books. I’ll have to dig out the book of kid songs I have at home to see how it’s printed.

10

I only remember it from a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, The Dizzy Acrobat, and he sang the repeated “The monk”, ending by speaking, “Well, who cares?” Here’s a video, and he sings the lines starting at about 2:10. http://www.funniermoments.com/watch.php?vid=064cbd1f9
However, you may have some problems with that site because it’s downloading very slowly.

11

Northeast Ohio, early 1980s: Drunk, and what became.

12

Northeast Ohio, mid-1950s:

The funniest was the monk,
Who climbed up the elephant’s trunk.
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees,
And what became of the monk?

13

I’ve read that this song – new on the comedy circuit in the late 1890s – was a great favourite with US troops, sung endlessly by them, in the Spanish-American War (and fell into the kids’ domain afterwards). Can anyone confirm this?

It’s odd at times how songs – sometimes highly inane – can catch on in wars, and come to be associated with the particular war concerned. As with Tipperary in 1914 – which if not for the outbreak of war, would probably have been merely an ephemeral silly British music-hall song. It just happened to have some lyrics which felt appropriate to the UK’s mood at the time – and to have a good and catchy tune, which IMO is more than can be said for The Animal Fair.

14

Have just recalled what I think was my only first-hand encounter with the song: at primary school in the UK, 55 + years ago – would seem that the song made it across the Atlantic, but didn’t become highly popular or well-known over here.

Song was “purveyed” to the kids by the teachers, thus with “respectable” wording. Monkey-and-elephant bit went thus:

The monkey fell out of his bunk
And onto the elephant’s trunk –
The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees,
And what become of the monk-ey-monk-ey monk-ey monk-ey (words and music gradually fading away)…

15

I don’t think anyone has yet given the exact variation that I learned as a kid. Differences I noticed:

The old baboon (not “big baboon”)
brushing her auburn hair (not “combing his”)
The funniest was the monk (not “funniest thing,” definitely just “funniest”)
He ran up the elephant’s trunk (not “sat on” or “fell on”)
And what became of the monk?
SQUISH!

That ending is the biggest difference, I think. After asking what became of the monk, you make the answer unambiguous by yelling SQUISH! at the top of your lungs.

16

No idea, but I realized while reading this thread that I’ve been hearing the song in my head to the tune of “You’re in the Army Now” (which is also the tune of the schoolyard ditty that begins “In 1944, my father went to war”). I had to go to YouTube to find the real tune, which I don’t really remember, though I must have heard it as a child. (Was it played on Captain Kangaroo?)