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Hey Hey We're the Monkees



The spelling of the word "Monkees," as the name of a 1960s pop cultural sensation, the so-called "pre-fab four," contains a very clever bit of word play. So clever that sixty years later it comes to my mind for no good reason.  Allow me to expound.

For those who don't remember: the Monkees were a fictional band (which in time came to treat itself as a real-world band) created for a comedic television show on NBC in 1966. This was the peak of Beatlemania. Indeed, the Monkees' TV show first aired around the time the Beatles released REVOLVER. 

The Monkees were designed specifically to catch the Beatles vibe, more as a comedic tribute group than as a parody. 

The neat bit of word play? It involves the names of the two groups.  The name "The Beatles" refers, of course, to an insect. It involves a deliberate misspelling of the first syllable of the name of that insect in order to incorporate a musical term, "beat". 

The name "The Monkees" refers, on the other hand, to a primate. It, too, involves a deliberate misspelling -- this time of the second syllable of the name of that primate -- this time in order to AVOID the musical term that is otherwise present there 'naturally'. These were the musical Monkees, not Monkeys. So: were they off-kee? 

I don't know whether to call this a pun or not. Somebody seems to have swerved to avoid the pun on the word "key". So ... call it an anti-pun. 

At any rate, my hat is off to whoever thought of the name. 

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  1. HenryFebruary 6, 2025 at 8:06 AM

    I had thought, though I can cite no evidence, that "Beatles" alluded to the Beats (Allen Ginsberg, etc.) Wikipedia states, "Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe, who had just sold one of his paintings and was persuaded to purchase a bass guitar with the proceeds, joined in January 1960. He suggested changing the band's name to Beatals, as a tribute to Buddy Holly and the Crickets. They used this name until May, when they became the Silver Beetles, before undertaking a brief tour of Scotland as the backing group for pop singer and fellow Liverpudlian Johnny Gentle. By early July, they had refashioned themselves as the Silver Beatles and by the middle of August simply the Beatles."

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    1. ChristopherFebruary 7, 2025 at 1:08 AM

      The Buddy Holly reference supports my understanding. "Beetles" as a tribute to the Crickets, but transformed into "beat" as a musical reference (nobody can deny Buddy had beat). Why Sutcliffe wanted to spell the second syllable "als" I don't know.

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