Happy Monkey Day!
Abadab is the puppet children love most in our HIV / gender awareness films in sub-Saharan Africa. Big, orange with bright moving eyes, he’s friend to Kibii Kabooka Kibing, the wise man who appears out of a cloud of dust and challenges a range of characters in their moment of crisis so they make healthy and responsible decisions for themselves.
Abadab isn’t really interested in these issues but finds each of the films’ game show formats tremendous fun. He doesn’t speak – that’s left to his other friend, Crow, who wears a necklace and hat. But he laughs, or howls, quite a lot. He’s the clown amid these weighty issues.
Abadab is surprised how few famous monkey puppets there are outside his superstar self. Lots of cartoon apes, plenty of puppet bears, but monkey puppets? Let’s see…
There’s Topov, the Cockney monkey from the 70’s children show Pipkins (look out for our interview with Hartley Hare puppeteer Nigel Plaskitt on January 1st).
Then there’s the knitted Monkey from the PG Tips ads.
There’s Joey and Davey Monkey, the banana-berzerk twins from Sesame Street, while Sal Minella monkey, below, wore a waistcoat and tie to appear in Muppets in Space and a number of other Muppet movies
Abadab would love to hear from you if he’s missed any other monkey puppet greats!
(Pictures copyright ATV, PG Tips, and The Walt Disney Co, all rights reserved)