Where the Signifying Monkey comes from The Signifying Monkey didn’t start as a joke. He started as a survival figure. He comes out of West and Central African trickster traditions, brought into Black American folklore during enslavement. On plantations and later on porches, he became a way to talk about: • Outsmarting power you can’t confront directly • Using language as a weapon • Saying the truth sideways so you don’t get killed In the classic folktales, the Monkey is small, verbal, sharp, and

Rudy Ray Moore performing "The Signifying Monkey" in DOLEMITE (1975). Never gets old.