Post #795173 by TheBigT on Wed, May 15, 2019 12:47 PM

Yeahhhh, I don't know where/when the whole monkeys in tiki started. It does seem to be a thing though. I'm guessing they will be accepted into the canon of what is a tiki bar by the present set of tiki bar establishments and patrons (along with an assortment of other non-tiki things).

I am partial to monkeys and the whole jungle aesthetic.
I do not have monkeys in my home tiki bar/lounge.
I do have a coconut monkey lamp in my home office.
I do make coconut monkey lamps (for fun & profit) occasionally.
But, yeah, have to agree: monkeys are not tiki.

Could it be that the problem with newer tiki bars that incorporate monkeys (fezzes, parrots, etc. etc.) is mostly about the bar not being Tiki enough in the first place? If the bars that are currently found wanting were actually perfect in every other way, but had one lone monkey (wearing a fezz on which a parrot was resting) in the corner somewhere, would we even have this thread?

Are the monkeys just symptomatic of the whole "tiki devolution" trend?

I wonder how much of the monkey-fezz-parrot issue is merely a byproduct of bars wanting to cash in on the tiki trend without spending the time to do their homework (or not having budgets to do so)?