Will Cuppy Tonight: "The Howling Monkey" from "How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes"

The "Thurber (et al.) Tonight" index has (finally) been updated, and should now be current!

"His howl is caused by a large hyoid bone at the top of the trachea. It can be cured by a simple operation on the neck with an axe."


So far in the title section of Will Cuppy's How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes we've met "The Chimpanzee," "The Gorilla," "The Orang-utan," "The Gibbon," and "The Baboon." Tonight we meet our next-to-last ape. -- Ken

The Howling Monkey

THE HOWLING MONKEY is confined to South America but seems to escape. The back of his head is straight up and down. His howl is caused by a large hyoid bone at the top of the trachea. It can be cured by a simple operation on the neck with an axe. The male Howler is always followed by seven or eight female Howlers with young Howlers but this may be a coincidence. Howlers have long prehensile tails with which they hang from the trees, talk Monkey talk and pick up Brazil nuts. There are several species of Howlers. The Fat Howler is as trying as any. The Howling Monkey and the Spider Monkey are neighbors. The infant Howling Monkey occasionally bears a striking resemblance to a Spider Monkey. Ask me sometime why that is.¹ The Capuchin or Organ Grinder Monkey is regarded as very intelligent. He scrambles after pennies, scratches himself and has morals. He can stand on his hind legs but the tail is a dead giveaway.² Monkeys have loads of fun. They breed in captivity and know many other tricks. They are fond of Bats, marshmallows, Goldfish and ink. Old World Monkeys cannot hang by their tails. They might as well not be Monkeys.³

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¹Spider Monkeys look nothing like Spiders.
²The Tee-tee or Squirrel Monkey inhabits Brazil and the Reading Room of the British Museum.
³There is a general feeling among Old World Monkeys that they are the best Monkeys, but there is no scientific basis for this. If you are an Old World Monkey you are classed as Catarrhine or narrow-nosed. If not, you are Platyrrhine or broad-nosed. That's about the gist of it.


TOMORROW IN WILL CUPPY TONIGHT: The Lemur


THURBER TONIGHT (including BENCHLEY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, BOB AND RAY, E. B. WHITE, JEAN SHEPHERD, and PERELMAN TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

As noted above, after an unfortunate period of sloughing off, I've finally updated the "Thurber (et al.) Tonight" index, and will try to get back to keeping it current. I've even put the "et al." authors in alphabetical order! Is this an elite reference tool or what?

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