Monkey Business (short story)

"Monkey Business" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the December 1932 issue of American Magazine under the title "A Cagey Gorilla", and in the United Kingdom in the December 1932 issue of Strand. It was included in the collection Blandings Castle and Elsewhere (1935).

Plot summary

The story is one of those narrated by pub raconteur Mr Mulliner, and concerns his distant cousin Montrose Mulliner, who is in love with Rosalie Beamish. Indirectly as a result of the advice of Captain Jack Fosdyke (a self-important and possibly lying explorer), Rosalie proposes that she and Montrose be married inside the cage of a star gorilla on the movie set where the two of them work. This would, she explains, generate much publicity for the film, promote her career, and give him an excuse to ask their boss for a raise. Montrose declines, and Rosalind ends their engagement. For dinner that night, she chooses not to dine with Montrose, but with the supposedly more courageous Captain Fosdyke. Montrose goes to the gorilla's cage and tries to befriend it with a banana, despairing when he recalls that it is an elephant that never forgets, not a gorilla.

A few days later, just before dinner, Montrose encounters a staff member from the Press department, who warns him that, to stoke publicity about the film, the gorilla will be "accidentally" released from its cage, causing panic and generating press attention. This indeed happens just moments later, and Montrose finds himself stranded in a distant part of the movie lot. For safety, and to reconnoiter, he climbs the steps attached to the back of one of the large sets, whereupon he sees that the gorilla has snatched a baby from its mother and lumbered off with the infant — to the consternation of a large crowd of onlookers. A moment later, he trips and falls, and then discovers that the gorilla is towering over him, staring at him with its "hideous face," having just climbed the steps behind the set as well.

Now the story's surprise ending is sprung, which is so preposterous that readers will realize at this point that the entire story must be a tall tale (which Mr Mulliner has no shortage of). As one might guess, Montrose dispatches the gorilla, saves the baby, vanquishes Captain Fosdyke, and wins Rosalie's undying admiration, all with just a few seconds' interaction with the beast — but how? The ridiculous (but amusing) secret is uncharacteristic of Wodehouse, whose surprise endings typically appear quite credible. He does, however, very subtly foreshadow the secret when he notes, with dry humor, near the beginning of the story that the gorilla's contract grants him a salary of 750 dollars per week, and "billing guaranteed in letters not smaller than those of ... the stars" of the movie.