21x20 Media presents
Monkey See, Monkey Do
A deadpan monkey insists he copies no one while a growing crowd copies him, and where "monkey see, monkey do" comes from.
He's an original. Ask anyone behind him.
The saying was in American print by the 1890s and already called an old saying by 1900, and behind it sits a much older tale of a hat seller whose caps are taken by monkeys who copy his every move. In 1992, scientists in Parma, Italy found a monkey brain cell that fired when it grabbed a peanut and when it only watched someone else grab one (mirror neurons), and a 2005 puzzle-box study found that chimpanzees skipped the pointless steps while small children copied every one.
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Studio21x20 Media
FormatAnimated short
Runtime1 minute, 13 seconds
Published
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