The Three Wise Monkeys. Not to be confused with the Three Wise Men who went to witness the birth of Jesus Christ, that was a different bunch of folk altogether.
Monkeys, typically, are not wise. Don't get me wrong some of them are clever (opening jars clever, not filing a tax returns clever), but it's doubtful that anyone would consult a monkey for wisdom.
The three exceptions to that are Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru - the three wisest monkeys of them all, famed for representing the proverb taken from the Confucius code of conduct - Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil. Possibly.
If you went looking for a brief synopsis of these monkeys to use in, say, a T-shirt challenge blog post, you would be hard pressed as their ancient past is clouded by years of reconstitutions in various cultural philosophies, making it extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact origin of these magical primates, which has tipped Alistair of T-shirt retailer Beckett & Beckett over the edge.
For Day 211 of my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge, I am wearing this Beckett & Beckett tee donated by Alistair which seeks to scrub out all historical record of these mammals and start from scratch with a modern interpretation - you know, the Baz Lurman treatment.
The only evil Monkey Left can hear comes from the venom spat by Eminem on his hip hop iPod playlist. Monkey Middle may well see evil, but in his trendy Aviators, he's far too cool to let it affect him. And Monkey Right is terrified of evil SARS flaring up from the smog of the city and so he stifles his speech with a face mask.
Now these are the sort of monkeys that history will remember.
See more from Beckett & Beckett at their website.
