Monkey or archbishop, I’m not sure which one to focus on as I write my free associations, dreamscapes of the two and ponder whether or not I’ve ever experienced in some way—in this realm or another, the company of a cleric and chimpanzee?
Yes, I have!
My brother Daniel created a photo and home recording video in the eighties that consisted of my sister, Sarah, playing the part of Jenny in Mama’s Girl, a film meant to be a comedy spoof of great proportions following in the footsteps of the educational programming both the church and BYU employed in instructing right and wrong for its members, a way to know across all wards and branches what one ought to be doing with their Sabbath day.
As children, we were not allowed to go out of the yard on Sunday, or to talk on the phone, watch TV or have friends over. These were not Mormon rules per say, but our own parents’ interpretation of how to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Consequently, the ten of us would often get creative, with the games we played together including acting out Dallas, in which we created our own drama’s, our bedrooms our sprawling Texas residences, or a game we called static-ney in which we went into the basement, army-issued wool blankets in hand, our legs belted together and hopped around the room attempting to sack someone with a blanket over the head, hence the name, as our hairs would stand on cling-end after the attack which made us laugh even more.
The video above is one of my brother Daniel’s creative ventures, probably produced on a Sunday and includes pics of my mother and one of my sister’s and one of my brother’s.
Back to primate, and priesthood and patriarchy, brother Nathan asks Jenny what on earth she’s doing when a hoodlum donned in Alf t-shirt and flannel demands that she get into his truck and go for a drinking flinger, Choose the Right, a church hymn plays in the background, a subliminal way in which the holy instruct those of small minds and apish appetites, this is how to navigate the many dangers of the jungle-o-the-worlds’ booby traps.
“Well, you sure are gettin’ controlling, like a big orangutan trying to ruin my life!”
The very line from the film I can neatly knot church to monkey’s with!
All wraps up nicely when Jenny holds up her hand to the heathens beckoning her into hellish fundom and proclaims,
“No, I won’t go!”
Video Credit: Daniel O'Bryant via Youtube/landtastic