About

Thinking Monkey or Monkey Thinking is an exploitable image macro meme featuring a monkey standing in front of a seaport looking up with his finger in the corner of his mouth, as though he is deep in thought or contemplating something. The photo of the monkey is often used in memes to joke about coming up with an idea or ruminating over something. The image was originally taken at the island of Gibraltar, a British territory off the coast of Spain, which is known for its population of Barbary macaques. The image was originally posted to DeviantArt by user anagw8 in late 2011, with a low-quality version of the meme making the rounds on Instagram, Twitter / X and TikTok after 2020.

Origin

On December 25th, 2011, DeviantArt^[1] user anagw8 made the earliest known internet post showing a monkey posing in front of a seaport, looking off to the top left with a finger in his mouth, as though he were thinking something over. The image, captioned "gibraltar monkeys," gathered over 6,000 views and 11 favourites in fourteen years.

Spread

The Thinking Monkey meme first began gaining traction online in early 2024, with Instagram^[2] user @jasiah posting the Thinking Monkey meme in an Instagram slideshow, showing him alongside text that reads, "What if I d*ck you down on some lowkey ish." The post gathered over 20,000 likes in two years, however, this image is likely a repost from another meme page.

On February 4th, 2024, the Instagram^[3] page @monitos_monkey reposted a low-resolution version of the Thinking Monkey meme that gathered over 90,000 likes in a year.

On March 4th, 2024, X^[4] user @chismosavirus posted a low-quality version of the Thinking Monkey meme, writing, "when the iced coffee starts tasting like I need an almond croissant to go along with it," and gathering over 40,000 likes in a year.

On March 6th, 2024, the Instagram^[5] page @acousticboiii posted the Thinking Monkey meme alongside a caption that read, "when the police officer asks me if I have been drunk driving so I hit him with one of these," gathering over 180,000 likes in a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References