Since King Kong first appeared onscreen in 1933, the giant ape has become an almost omnipresent part of the pop culture landscape. Besides numerous appearances on movie screens, including the campy 1976 remake and the current Peter Jackson-helmed blockbuster, Kong has been the subject of pop songs, comedy routines and video games. While the movie monster inspired his fair share of awe and fear on-screen, offscreen he’s inspired everything from a cartoon series and jazz melody to a baseball slugger’s nickname and a “Simpsons” parody. Here’s a look at some of the numerous ways Kong has infiltrated our culture, including the ultimate Kong song mix and some alternate monkey movies.
ALL THINGS KONG: GREATEST HITS
Kong Songs
Numerous artists over the years have employed the giant ape as their musical muse. Here’s a version of the ultimate Kong mix for you to load on your iPod before you head out to the theater.
“Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head” by Gorillaz
Where else would the cartoon band record last year’s smash CD “Demon Days” but Kong studios?
“King Kong” by Bow Wow Wow
This reggae-tinged salute to the giant ape includes nonsensical lyrics such as “Somedays on Saturdays when, we buy him some towers, not flowers or trousers.”
“King Kong” by The Kinks
After name-dropping Kong on the 1970 back-to-nature single “Apeman,” Ray Davies revisited the simian theme on this hard-rocking look at bullying.
“King Kong” by Tom Waits
Waits transforms indie darling Daniel Johnston’s unpolished retelling of the movie’s plot points into a hypnotic dirge.
“King Kong” by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (above).
This jazz melody first appeared as a six-part suite on 1969’s “Uncle Meat” and later became an ever-evolving concert staple for Zappa.
“King Kong Song” by ABBA
It’s no “Dancing Queen,” but this obscure track off the band’s U.S. debut album, “Waterloo,” has all the playfulness of ABBA’s better-known hits.
“King Kong Your Song” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and Peter Ferrara
Capitalizing on the 1976 Kong remake, the voice of the “Monster Mash” released this novelty song with the memorable chorus of “King Kong, King Kong/The white man done you wrong.”
“Old King Kong” by George Jones
Kong goes country as Jones professes the depth of his adoration, singing, “Old King Kong was just a little monkey compared to my love for you.”
Comedy
“King Kong” by Bob Newhart: In this classic routine, Newhart employs his signature one-sided conversation shtick as he imagines an Empire State Building security guard who on his first night on the job calls his boss for advice on what to do when a 20-story ape is scaling the building. Finally told to just do whatever it takes to get the ape down off the building, Newhart, in his trademark deadpan stammer, replies, “I came up with one idea. … I thought maybe I could smear the Chrysler Building with bananas.”
“King Homer” (right) from the “Treehouse of Terror III” episode of “The Simpsons”: To Simpsons aficionados, Season 4 is often considered the series’ high point, and this parody of the Kong story from the annual Halloween episode shows why. Unlike the movies, the episode ends on an up note. Homer (playing the ape) begins to scale the Empire State Building, but true to his character, he becomes winded and falls — from the second story. Love wins out, though, as beauty Marge (playing the Ann Darrow role) weds the beast.
Sports
King Kong Bundy (right): Measuring 6-foot-5 and weighing more than 400 pounds, the bald-headed, semicoherent Bundy was one of the most colorful stars of the World Wrestling Federation during the sport’s mid-’80s heyday. Bundy’s career pinnacle was a marquee match against Hulk Hogan during Wrestlemania II in 1986. Bundy later dabbled in acting, appearing in the 1988 Richard Pryor film “Moving” and several episodes of “Married With Children.”
Dave “Kong” Kingman: Just like the movie Kong, Kingman was known equally for his prodigious power and his surly behavior. Kingman spent three of his 16 seasons playing for the Cubs, including 1980, when he led the National League with a career-high 48 home runs. He retired after the 1986 season with 442 career home runs.
Charlie “King Kong” Keller: A five-time All-Star left fielder in the ’40s for the New York Yankees, Keller earned his nickname because of his muscular frame and bushy black eyebrows. Despite the nickname’s staying power, Keller disliked it. Today another movie monster patrols left field for the Yanks — Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui.
Cartoons and video games
“Donkey Kong”: The “Donkey Kong” arcade game launched Nintendo’s video gaming empire in 1981. In the original game, you, as Mario the plumber, had to rescue your girlfriend, Pauline, from the clutches of the giant ape, Kong, who tried to impede your progress by hurling barrels and beams. Kong and his spawn have since starred in dozens of arcade and video games, the latest of which is “Donkey Konga” in which you earn coins by making Kong dance by beating on actual bongos attached to your Gamecube.
Nintendo was sued by MCA Universal for copyright infringement over the Kong name, but Nintendo prevailed after digging up evidence that the giant ape was in the public domain.
“King Kong”: Kong befriends a boy named Bobby and fights all sorts of bad guys in this animated Saturday morning series, which debuted on ABC in 1966. The most memorable aspect of the show, which was released on DVD in November, was its distinct basso profundo theme song (“King Kong/You know the name of King Kong/You know the name of King Kong/Ten times as big as a man.”).
“Kong: The Animated Series”: Fox aired this cartoon Saturday mornings during summer 2001. The plot picked up were the movies left off, with a scientist cloning Kong and then hiding him safely away from the world on Kong Island until circumstances call for the giant ape and some teen companions to unite and foil various nefarious plans.
“Rampage”: Kong made another appearance in the arcades in 1986, this time as a big ape benignly named George, running amok in the city along-side a Godzilla-like lizard and giant werewolf. While beauty may have killed the beast in “Kong,” in Rampage, George got bonus points for finding and eating distressed damsels.
Movies
If you’re waiting for “Kong” to be released on DVD, you may want to bide your time with some of these other films revolving around apes.
“Planet of the Apes” (1968): Skip Tim Burton’s soulless 2001 remake, and watch the original science-fic-tion classic in which Charlton Heston leads a crew of astronauts exploring a land where intelligent apes rule and savage humans are captured and caged. “Apes” spawned four sequels, concluding with 1973’s “Battle for the Planet of the Apes;” a CBS series in 1974; and an NBC Saturday morning cartoon in 1975.
“Gorillas in the Mist” (1988): If you’re searching for a more authentic simian experience, Sigourney Weaver’s Oscar-nominated performance as real-life ape whisperer Dian Fossey, who worked in the jungles of Rwanda to study and save mountain gorillas, is your best bet.
“Congo” (1995): In this film, based on the Michael Crichton book of the same name, Amy, a gorilla who’s been taught sign language and enjoys martinis, accompanies a band of humans to the African jungle to recover a rare diamond. Among the surprises waiting for them — a band of killer apes.
“George of the Jungle” (1997): This enjoyable adaptation of the classic ’60s cartoon features Brendan Fraser as the dimwitted Tarzan-like George and the voice of John Cleese as his faithful companion, an ape named Ape.
“Mighty Joe Young” (1998): A re-make paired a 15-foot-tall Joe with Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron. The original 1933, “King Kong” creator Merian C. Cooper recycled elements of his earlier triumph in this tale in which a significantly smaller gorilla is brought to Hollywood. Things go swimmingly until the gorilla tires of his new life and — what else? — runs amok.
“Tarzan” (1999): The last hurrah for Disney’s animated revival featured some good elements (the scene in which Tarzan learns to slide and surf along the vines is eye-popping), some bad (the tepid Phil Collins songs) and some intolerable (Rosie O’Donnell’s grating voice work as Tarzan’s ape buddy, Terk).
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