History Main / MonkeyMoralityPose

** Specifically, Shrek covered his eyes, Fiona covered her mouth, and Simon, [[MeanBrit being Simon]], put his fingers in his ears.

* In the [[AmericanIdol Far Far Away Idol]] special in {{Shrek}} 2, when the Three Blind Mice sang [[{{Irony}} "I Can See Clearly Now The Rain Is Gone"]], when they tripped over each other, Shrek, Fiona, and [[SimonCowell Simon]] (in that order) did this pose.

* ''AdventureQuest'' spinoff site ebilgames.com has a variation with Zorbak, Twilly and Twig in this pose.

* One episode of ''JackieChanAdventures'' has Tohru, Jade, and Jackie being [[SingleEpisodeHandicap struck blind, deaf, and mute]] respectively by a giant monkey statue.

The Monkey Morality Pose is a visual comedy trope frequently seen in comedy and animation.

* Romanian president Traian Basescu featured himself in place of the monkey, as part of his electoral campaign.

* Runescape does this, and how. The three monkeys are actually found ingame, with the original names. There is a whole quest centered around them, even! A short version of the story is like this: [[spoiler:Monkeys have once lived on the desert. The clash of two gods, Amascut, goddess of destruction, and Apmeken, goddess of friendship and sociability and monkeys, caused Apmeken to lose and lose her three senses - and so did the desert monkeys. Out of the stolen senses, three monsters were forged, and killed off the debilitated monkey population - except for Mizaru, Iwazaru and Kikazaru, which escaped to a monkey island (no, not that one), by helping each other and filling out for their respective lackings. Also due to Apmeken's loss, people of the desert turned hostile and started wars. In the quest, the player establishes a new monkey colony on the desert and defeats those three monsters, restoring Apmeken's senses, and is spoken to by the goddess... and also does a lot of other funnier things.]] Talking to the three monkeys is a rather comedic routine if one can't talk back and one doesn't hear you.

* Seen in [[http://www.scarygoround.com/?date=20100329 this panel]] of ''Bad Machinery''.

* MyLifeAsATeenageRobot: The title cards for three different episodes named after each line have a variation of Jenny striking the three poses.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Three famous 1930s MGM Hugh Harman-Rudolf Ising cartoons -- "GoodLittleMonkeys," "Pipe Dreams," and "Art Gallery" -- featured the three monkeys as statues come to life, trying to be good but always misbehaving. (And if you want an EarWorm, just listen to their "Speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, no!" song. Yikes!)

It is based on the old idea of the three monkeys whose example good people should follow to live their lives: See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil with hands over eyes, mouth and ears, respectively. A fourth monkey, Do No Evil, keeps his hands in his lap -- and since that could be interpreted [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic a number of ways]], it may explain why the fourth monkey is not so well known. According to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys the Other Wiki]], the saying [[OlderThanYouThink dates back back to Confucius]]. When translated to Japanese, it becomes "Mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru" (literally, "Don't see, don't hear, don't do"). Since "-zaru" sounds like "saru" (which means "monkey") it became known as the Three Wise Monkeys.

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* The Monkeys from "Banana Sunday" ARE the original The Wise Monkeys.

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* One episode of ''{{Charmed}}'' had the three sisters cursed with this. One sister was struck blind, another deaf, and the third mute.
* Briefly referenced in a Halloween episode of ''{{NCIS}}''. A trio of pranksters wearing monkey masks discover the corpse ''du jour'' at the beginning of the episode. They're listed in the credits as "See," "Speak," and "Hear."

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* In a rather frightening version, episode 51 of ''FullmetalAlchemist'' Brotherhood has [[http://randomc.net/image/Fullmetal%20Alchemist/Fullmetal%20Alchemist%20-%2051%20-%20Large%2021.jpg an eyecatch]] showing three members of the "cyclops army" in such a pose.

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* Seen in [[http://www.scarygoround.com/?date=20100329 this panel]] of ''Bad Machinery''.

[[AC:WesternRPG]]
* ''AdventureQuest'' spinoff site ebilgames.com has a variation with Zorbak, Twilly and Twig in this pose.

[[AC:RealLife]]

** It's also an EarWorm that's almost impossible to decipher unless you know something about 1930s culture. Gay meant rakish, and jazz was bad (or worse... ethnic!):

** Alfred E. Neuman strikes the pose on one cover if the magazine.

* There is an old ''MadMagazine'' comic where the shadow shows what people really think/want. The comic where a man is being mugged shows the three passengers waiting at the nearby bus stop and not responding have shadows in this shape.

Generally, in the 20th and 21st centuries, the trope has been used to convey people refusing to acknowledge things they should be acting on, or as a shorthand for people reacting to something shocking or horrifying as a type of Beatdown Discretion Shot, if you will.