86 the Monkey

86 is a famous chimpanzee whom Karl spoke about on the 31 May 2003 Xfm show as part of his Monkey News feature.

Emigration

According to Karl, 86 was a magician's assistant who lived in Morocco. The magician would do his act and would send out 86 (who would wear a stylish hat) to collect money from the audience. When the magician felt that he and 86 had worked all the tourist traps, he decided to relocate to Spain. However, the magician (who Karl never named) knew he would have trouble getting the chimp across the border as "you're not allowed to take monkeys out of the country and that". He put 86 into the trunk of the car and began his journey to Spain. Along the way he needed to refuel his car so he pulled up to service station for gas and opened the boot to allow 86 to get some fresh air. As he was paying for his gas, the attendant pointed out that there was no car at the pump he had used. The magician turned and was shocked to see 86 had "given it some" and went to Spain on his own.

Reaction

Both Ricky and Steve were (as usual) perplexed at this story and dismissed it as untrue. When quizzed about how the monkey got through customs, Karl claimed he was sneaking about because he didn't have a passport. Ricky dubbed the story as one of the worst Karl has told and said it was "almost as bad as the armed robbery". For sometime afterwards whenever mocking Karl's monkey news or sarcastically discussing monkeys and their habits, Ricky and Steve would talk of monkeys love for Spain and their ability to get themselves there.

Interpretation

'86 the monkey' is possibly derived from the phrase '86 the {thing}', meaning to cancel or eliminate something. This is commonly used in restaurants to state that an item is now off the menu - e.g. '86 the monkey' would mean that the restaurant is out of monkeys.