Are Trunk Monkeys Objectionable?

One of the not-quite-perks that goes with the critic's job is taking tips from the public.

More often than not, the calls are simple: you're settling a bet (yes, Bill Cosby had a TV sitcom before his '80s-era hit where he played a phys ed teacher) or telling people whe their favorite show comes back (the one person in the Tampa Bay area who watches Fox's Standoff called to find it returns in April)

Occasionally, you get a good idea (This story, for example, came from a reader tip).  And then there are the borderline cases.

This morning, a reader called to complain about a commercial area Lexus dealers are airing featuring Trunk Monkeys. In the first commercials, for Suburban auto group, these were chimps who would jump from the trunk to solve common driver problems -- road ragers or problem kids, for example.  As an anti-theft device, the monkey would jump out of the trunk, knock out the thief and dump his body in the river "because sometimes getting your car back is simply not enough." Cute.

But a caller complained today about this commercial featuring the "pediatric edition" of the trunk monkey. When I pressed the caller to explain his objections, he wouldn't go into details, telling me to find the commercial and see for myself.

Well, I did, and assuming the guy wasn't yanking my chain, I have no idea what he's talking about. What do you think?

Comments

[Joel]

I tried very hard to find something in there. Could it be the camera angle behind the monkey, with its head's position in relation to the woman's legs being potentially salacious? I feel almost embarrassed suggesting this because it was a real stretch to find something.

It's a good illustration however of how futile and frequently counterproductive censorship can be. What if the caller who brought this to your attention became a member of the MPAA's ratings board, or head of the FCC? Offense is far too dependent on the individual to require such regulation.

And so is funny, though I'd love to hear an argument against that commercial being funny.

[chazz]

These trunk monkey commercials are great! A barrel full and a half at least. To find fault is amazing yet totally expected. Grumpy people need something to complain about.

[Okra Coke]

That's not the problem with the Trunk Monkey ads. The problem is that the juvenile chimpanzees who appear in those commercials are forced through training into unnatural behaviors. Chimpanzees who "work" in the entertainment business can only be handled until they are six or seven years old; after that they are too large, too strong, and not "cute" enough to appear in commercials or films.
Chimpanzees live to be sixty years old or older. You do the math. The thousands of chimpanzees who have appeared over the years in ads and films -- including the first generation of careerbuilder.com chimps and those from the first Trunk Monkey ads -- have mostly been sold to biomedical research labs or roadside zoos. Just a few have made it to a sanctuary where they will spend the next 50 years of "retirement" out of the wild where they belong.