Monkey Haircut

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About

Monkey Haircut is a viral video of a young macaque monkey closing its eyes while receiving a haircut. Online, the video spawned a photoshop meme in which a screen capture from the video is superimposed into other base images to appear as if a variety of people and characters are cutting the monkey's hair.

Origin

On February 15th, 2017, the JFOX Facebook^[6] page uploaded a video of a young macaque monkey receiving a haircut at a salon (shown below). Over the next seven months, the video gained over 3.8 million views, 55,700 shares and 35,000 reactions.

Spread

On February 17th, 2017, Redditor KevlarYarmulke uploaded a GIF of the video to /r/gif,^[5] where it received upwards of 1,400 points (89% upvoted) and 50 comments over the next seven months.

On August 31st, 2017, the Brazilian Facebook^[8] page “Macacos rindo de noticias chocantes” ("Monkeys laughing at shocking news" in English) posted a picture of a news story about a monkey who was electrified by power lines followed by a screen capture of the monkey getting a haircut (shown below). Over the next month, the post received more than 500 shares and 470 reactions.

On September 24th, The Content Zone Facebook ^[7] page posted a picture of Donald Trump signing an executive order photoshopped to appear as if he is cutting the monkey's hair (shown below, left).. That day, the Meme Supreme Facebook^[2] page posted a Pills That Make You Stare variation featuring the screen capture of a monkey getting a haircut (shown below).

Meanwhile, Redditor Shaponja submitted a post asking if the photoshop meme was "on the rise" to /r/MemeEconomy.^[1] That evening the @MonkeyHaircut^[4] Twitter feed was launched, which highlights various examples of the meme.