Thanks to our tipster dubnobasswithmyheadman, Infendo has decided to dust off an old chestnut and try once again to solve the mystery of where Nintendo’s beloved gorilla got his strange, biologically incorrect name. A page at neomarxisme brings up a possible link to Donkey Kong’s name and a folk tale that’s very popular in Japan that’s called “The King has Donkey Ears,” or ???????????.
Other research from wikipedia shows two more theories about our furry friends nomenclature:
…Both theories agree that the “Kong” portion of the name is due to the character being a gorilla. The mistranslation theory suggests that the game was supposed to have been named “Monkey Kong” and that due to a mistyped fax, blurred fax, or poor phone connection, the game’s name was changed to Donkey Kong. The other theory is that Shigeru Miyamoto, the game’s inventor, used the word “donkey” to convey a sense of stubbornness and the name “Kong” to invoke the image of a gorilla.
Neomarxisme’s theory is definitely interesting, but since I’ve yet to find conclusive evidence proving any of the three ideas, we’ll just have to wait ’till we have an opportunity to ask Miyamoto-san himself.
