While social media has its dangers and downsides, its platforms can create international communities of love as well. Such was the case when Punch the monkey went viral on multiple platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, his adorable face and tear-jerking story gaining attention from all over the world.
Punch is a seven-month-old Japanese macaque monkey who currently lives at the Ichikawa City Zoo. After being abandoned by his mother, he found solace in an orangutan stuffed animal that zookeepers gifted him as a surrogate mother. The footage that made him become a household name was the videos of him being beat up and tossed around by the other monkeys and the way he ran to his orangutan for comfort afterward. No matter who the viewers were or where they lived, almost everyone felt their heart ache for Punch.
“I just felt sick watching this lonely little monkey without a mother who was also being ostracized by his tribe,” said social studies teacher Natalie Shevlin. “I feel like a lot of people have a soft heart for innocence. We hate to see bad things happen to children and animals, especially if they are cute like Punch.”
These sentiments were echoed by junior Callum Sawicki. He believes viewers who empathize with Punch may also feel so emotionally attached due to personal connections with his story.
“I think he is meaningful to so many people because he represents the attachment issues that develop from abandonment at a young age and people see a reflection of themselves in Punch,” said Sawicki.
Shevlin also emphasizes the psychology at play in Punch’s global popularity. Upon viewing TikToks about him, she instantly saw the connection between his story and the Harry Harlow monkey experiment, which she teaches to
her AP Psychology students every year.
In the real experiment, baby rhesus monkeys chose comfort from a cloth surrogate mother over a wire mother that came with food. Their desire for comfort over nourishment spoke to their desire for a surrogate mother, identical to Punch’s strong emotional attachment with his orangutan surrogate. Seeing an intersection of viral content and what she taught to her students, the psychology associated with his story stood out to her most.
“We are all desperate for love and safety and security,” said Shevlin.
While it was the aggression and rejection of Punch that broke most people’s hearts, this wasn’t the only thing that resonated with senior Maddie Dunn.
“It also made me sad to see the conditions that the animals in that zoo are kept in,” said Dunn. “From the videos I’ve seen, there doesn’t seem to be any greenery or anything in their enclosure resembling their natural habitat.”
She hopes that the monkey’s new popularity and the revenue he has brought to the Ichikawa zoo will inspire changes and renovations to be made to the macaque enclosure.
“I think what we can take away from Punch’s story is that animal living conditions in zoos should be upgraded,” said Dunn .
Though Punch’s living conditions and relationships with the other monkeys have evoked sadness in viewers, they’ve induced feelings of love, connection and gratitude as well.
“There seems to be a lot of darkness in the world currently, for valid reasons,” said Shevlin. “I think Punch was a good example that we are all looking for the good in a scary world.”
