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Monkey Hangers

2015-11-03 · story · John · 3:50 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Sports) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: community lore

John tells the probably fictional Hartlepool legend of a monkey hanged as a French spy, which became the football club's mascot H'Angus, whose wearer was thrice elected mayor, and draws two lessons: embrace your history, and we are always in the middle of history.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Teaser; how John learned the story: Nerdfighteria's AFC Wimbledon sponsorship, a 2-0 win over Hartlepool, the headline 'Dons Down Monkey Hangers', Wikipedia

  • ★★ John promises an amazing story about a monkey hanged for treason who, years later and in a roundabout way, kind of became leader of the people who executed him. (playful) — 00:00:01
  • ★★ John says Nerdfighteria and he sponsor fourth-tier, fan-owned AFC Wimbledon as its back-of-shorts sponsor. — 00:00:13 · Nerdfighteria, AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says AFC Wimbledon have won three straight games, most recently a two-nil defeat of Hartlepool. — 00:00:24 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★ Reading about the game, John found the headline 'Dons Down Monkey Hangers', which led him down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. — 00:00:30 · Wikipedia, AFC Wimbledon

00:00:41 — Context: the failed French Revolution, Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars

  • ★★ John says the French Revolution, which promised democracy, freedom and equality, failed spectacularly, as revolutions often do, replacing a despot named Louis with one named Napoleon. (playful) — 00:00:45
  • ★★ John says Napoleon started the 13-year Napoleonic Wars, conquering and then losing most of Europe, but never conquered Great Britain or Russia. — 00:00:56

00:01:14 — The legend: a French warship sinks off Hartlepool, the surviving monkey is tried as a French spy and hanged; probably an adapted folk song

  • ★★★ John recounts the legend, probably just a story: a French warship sank off Hartlepool; locals took the only survivor, a monkey in French uniform, for a spy, tried it on the beach and hanged it. (playful, hedged) — 00:01:14
  • ★★ John says Hartlepool is a city in north-east England of about 93,000 people. — 00:01:18 · England
  • ★★ John says what probably actually happened is that an old folk song was adapted into history. (hedged) — 00:01:56

00:02:00 — Hartlepool embraces it: mascot H'Angus the Monkey since 1999; Stuart Drummond elected mayor in 2002, 2005 and 2009

  • ★★★ John says Hartlepool embraced the legend: since 1999 its football team's mascot has been a monkey named H'Angus, a pun on Angus and hanging. — 00:02:00
  • ★★★ John says in 2002 Stuart Drummond, the man in the H'Angus costume, ran for mayor as a team-backed stunt promising free bananas for schoolchildren, beat the real parties, and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009. — 00:02:18

00:02:52 — Two lessons: embrace your history; we are always in the middle of history and cannot know the future; weirdly optimistic; sign-off

  • ★★ John's first lesson: embrace your history, even if it's bananas (a pun he points out). (playful) — 00:02:53
  • ★★★ John's second lesson: we are always in the middle of history; the hanged monkey couldn't know its weird future, just as none of us can know ours. — 00:02:58
  • ★★ John admits it is kind of a sad story, but finds being in the middle of history encouraging and remains 'weirdly optimistic'. (hedged) — 00:03:34 · optimism

Humor (significant)

  • Describing Nerdfighteria's back-of-shorts sponsorship of AFC Wimbledon. — 00:00:19

    “our logo occupies that liminal space between buttock and thigh.”

  • Listing the countries Napoleon never conquered. — 00:01:05

    “you cannot invade Russia in the winter unless you're the Mongols.”

  • Explaining why Hartlepudlians condemned the shipwrecked monkey as a spy. — 00:01:42

    “have never seen either a French person or a monkey so they naturally assume that this monkey is a French spy.”

  • Drawing the first lesson from a monkey mascot whose wearer promised free bananas. — 00:02:53

    “The first is embrace your history even if it's bananas.”

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: H'Angus the Monkey (“H'Angus”) · Hartlepool · Stuart Drummond

Also: People: Louis XVI · Napoleon

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon · Conservative Party · Hartlepool United F.C. · Labour Party · Wikipedia

Concepts: optimism

Places: Braintree · England · Great Britain · Mongol Empire · Russia · Snodland · Sunderland

Events: French Revolution · Napoleonic Wars

Characters: Hobbit

Myths: Hartlepool monkey

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