About
IKEA Monkey is the nickname given to a Japanese snow macaque named Darwin that was found loose wearing a coat at a Canadian IKEA store in December of 2012.
Origin
Twitter user Bronwyn Iler Page tweeted a photograph of a Japanese snow macaque monkey wearing a shearling coat at an IKEA store in Toronto, Canada on December 9th, 2012. Within three days, the tweet received over 415 retweets and 158 favorites.
Umm saw a monkey in the #ikea parking lot. twitter.com/broniewyn/stat…
— Bronwyn Iler Page (@broniewyn) December 9, 2012
The same day, Twitter user Lisa Lin tweeted a new photograph of the same monkey standing in front of a window at IKEA, receiving over 120 retweets and 40 favorites within the next three days.
Anyone lose their monkey at Ikea? instagr.am/p/TByJK-SsJt/
— Lisa Lin (@dzd_lisa) December 9, 2012
Spread
As the photograph of the monkey began spreading online, the @Ikea_Monkey novelty Twitter account was created, which posted tweets from the perspective of the juvenile macaque.
What’s all the fuss about? #ikea
— Ikea Monkey (@Ikea_Monkey) December 9, 2012
That same day, Gawker[1] published an article titled “Shearling Coat-Wearing Monkey Found Wandering Around Canadian Ikea,” which reported that the monkey was roaming the store for an hour before animal control arrived. The article was later updated to include tweets from Tom Podolec of CTV News, who reported that the six-month-old macaque would not be returned to its owners.
Owners of #IkeaMonkey came forward; charged with having a prohibited animal; $240 fine. Will not get monkey back.#Toronto#Ikea
— Tom Podolec CTV News (@TomPodolec) December 9, 2012
#IkeaMonkey is a Rhesus Macaque Monkey Approx. 7 months old. In good health; stressed. Jacket is wool and said to be his favourite.
— Tom Podolec CTV News (@TomPodolec) December 9, 2012
On December 10th, Redditor toucher submitted Bronwyn Page’s photograph of the monkey to the /r/WTF[6] subreddit, where it received over 18,700 up votes and 440 comments within 24 hours.
External References
[1]Gawker – Shearling Coat-Wearing Monkey Found Wandering Around Canadian Ikea
[2]Reddit – Ikea Monkey Explanation
[3]Gawker – The Best of the Ikea Monkey the Meme
[4]ABC News – Ikea Monkey Owner Vows to Fight for Primates Return
[5]CBS News – Twitter goes bananas for IkeaMonkey
[6]Reddit – Picture of the loose monkey found in an Ikea store
[7]Reddit – Ikea Monkey contemplates past life choices
[8]Facebook – Ikea Monkey