Thingtron, Defender of the Stuff

To my great surprise, not many of you have emailed me asking why the sudden focus on monkeys in the strip, and to be honest, I take that as a good thing -- it means that you guys KNOW, maaaaaan. Monkeys, to me, are humor incarnate. You can take any thing, put a monkey in it, and BAM. Comedy gold. People in the late 70's/early 80's knew this. Take an occupation that itself was not very interesting at all (say... I dunno... truck driving), and stick a monkey in there. Congratulations, you've just created a hit TV show or movie. This secret was apparently lost during the later part of the decade and for most of the 90's. I think that we can probably blame that on some of the monkey-centric movies of the 90's that really had no hope of success, no matter how many monkeys were sent to work their monkey magic. Also, many of these movies placed children in lead roles, and with a scant few exceptions, a movie where a child is the star is doomed. DOOOOOOMED. Kids are like anti-monkeys. Or something.

Regardless, ignorant people everywhere blamed the movies' failure on the monkeys, and that stigma has stuck around for years. But no more. While movie studios are still reluctant to bank on the sublime simians, video game companies are all about getting their chimp on. Sega's successful Super Monkey Ball series should be proof enough of that. But add to that the fact that Sony and Ubi Soft have deigned to continue the Ape Escape series of games, and it becomes clear that we are at last emerging from the dark age of monkeylessness. Also, I'd like to point out the storyline of Ape Escape 2 is heavily peppered with the phrase "Monkey Pants". Monkey Pants. That's monkeys and pants, together. Seriously, think about that for a second. It's akin to peanut butter and chocolate for your brain. At any rate, maybe all of this good monkeyness will finally convince Domino's Pizza that their poor abandoned mascot really isn't bad... he's simply being the best monkey he can be. And is there anything more noble than that?

Actually, there is one thing. It's called voting. Some of you may have noticed that your 1337 v0t3z0r1n6 5k1||z were enough to boot RAoK into 2nd place in the Buzzcomics top list for a little while. And once that happened, it was on. We seem to be switching places with the current #2 comic, Oh My Gods, on a regular basis. You people vote, we become #2, I beam with joy, and then Mr. pagan-comic goes and works his dark magic(k), apparently summoning votes from the ether with a mixture of newt eyes, frog toes, and -- most rare of all -- some of Anna Nicole Smith's leftovers from the all-you-can-eat rib restaurant. It's a sick little dance. Regardless of how it's happening though, my only means of competing is your continued vigilance and/or pity. So vote, if you would be so kind. Your country (regardless of which it is) thanks you. No, really.