Where did IKEA Monkey come from?

The photos were taken at the IKEA at Sheppard Avenue East and Leslie Street in Toronto, first posted by shopper Bronwyn Iler Page to Twitter[1].

What does IKEA Monkey mean?

Online, the image works as a reaction picture for feeling small, lost, or existentially resigned, and it also anchors a family of Photoshop macros riffing on IKEA shopping trips[8].

How do you use IKEA Monkey?

Common convention is to caption Darwin's photo with a wistful line about errands or IKEA visits, often echoing the original "I was supposed to pick up Carl" macro from Reddit[8].

Is IKEA Monkey still popular?

The image is a recognized classic from 2012 and still circulates as a shorthand for early-2010s Twitter and Reddit humor, though the initial viral wave was concentrated in that December[2].

Who owned IKEA Monkey?

Toronto real-estate lawyer Yasmin Nakhuda, who told ABC News she had obtained the seven-month-old macaque about five months earlier from a friend who bred exotic pets[3].

Did Yasmin Nakhuda get Darwin back?

No. On September 13, 2013, Ontario Superior Court Judge Mary Vallee dismissed her suit and ruled Darwin was a wild animal who would stay at the sanctuary[5].

Why was owning Darwin illegal?

Toronto bylaws prohibit keeping a pet monkey, and Nakhuda was fined $240 for the violation the day Darwin escaped[4].

Was there really an IKEA Monkey video game?

Yes. In late December 2012, Seneca College animation professor Barnabas Wornoff and former students built a browser flash game where players guide Darwin through an IKEA parking lot collecting parts for a Billy wall shelf[6].

IKEA Monkey

Q: What is IKEA Monkey?

IKEA Monkey is the nickname for Darwin, a Japanese macaque photographed wandering a North York IKEA parking lot in a shearling coat and diaper on December 9, 2012[1].

Q: What happened to Darwin after the incident?

Toronto Animal Services took him to the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ontario, where his coat, diaper, and harness were removed[3].

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Published August 31, 2026

In December 2012, a small Japanese macaque named Darwin escaped his crate in a locked car and wandered a Toronto IKEA parking lot wearing a shearling coat and diaper. Photos of the primate hit Twitter and Reddit within hours, spawning one of the defining viral animal moments of the early 2010s and a long tail of pensive-monkey image macros.

primate memes viral photo memes accidental fame memes 2012 memes animal memes

Overview

IKEA Monkey is the nickname the internet gave Darwin, a seven-month-old Japanese macaque photographed wandering a North York IKEA parking lot on December 9, 2012, dressed in a tiny shearling coat and diaper1. Toronto Police described Darwin as a smart primate who had unlocked his crate, opened the car door, and let himself out into the customer pick-up area while his owner shopped inside2. The visual, small primate in human clothing looking mildly bewildered near sliding glass doors, read online as pensive or contemplative and turned Darwin into an instant reaction image.

The meme took off as image macros piled on top of the original photos. The most-shared early template borrowed from the I Should Buy a Boat Cat format, pairing Lisa Lin's window shot of Darwin with the caption "I was supposed to pick up Carl"8. From there, Photoshops placed Darwin into other IKEA scenes, gave him different outfits, or leaned into the absurd contrast of a wild macaque doing routine Sunday errands. The wool coat, later confirmed by CTV News to be Darwin's favorite piece of clothing, did most of the comedic work on its own2.

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter (photo posted) / Reddit (viral spread)

Creator

Bronwyn Iler Page

Date

2012

Toronto shopper Bronwyn Iler Page (@broniewyn) posted the first photo of Darwin to Twitter on December 9, 2012, with the caption "Umm saw a monkey in the #ikea parking lot"1. The IKEA in question sits at Sheppard Avenue East and Leslie Street in North York, and the primate was loose in the customer pick-up area for close to an hour before animal control arrived2. Owner Yasmin Nakhuda, a Toronto real-estate lawyer, had left Darwin in her car while she shopped, and later said she had picked him up about five months earlier from a close friend who bred exotic pets3.

CTV News reporter Tom Podolec covered the incident on Twitter the same evening and confirmed that Nakhuda had been fined $240 for owning a prohibited animal and would not get her pet back2. Toronto Animal Services took Darwin to the Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Sunderland, Ontario, about an hour outside the city, where staff removed the coat, diaper, and harness3.

How It Spread

Reddit surfaced the story within 24 hours. On December 10, user toucher submitted Bronwyn Page's photo to r/WTF, where it pulled more than 18,700 upvotes and 440 comments in a day, while user go4's "I was supposed to pick up Carl" macro cleared 30,400 upvotes on r/funny8. Two parody Twitter accounts, @Ikea_Monkey and @IkeaMonkey, appeared before the day of the original tweet was over and started posting from the perspective of the escaped primate2.

Mainstream press picked it up fast. Gawker ran the first news write-up on December 9, then followed with a roundup post titled "The Best of IKEA Monkey, the Meme" on December 102. CBS News reported the same day that the #IkeaMonkey hashtag had drawn over 2,300 tweets in a single day according to social metrics site Topsy, with several parody accounts and Instagram spinoffs already live4. ABC News picked up the story on December 11 and interviewed Nakhuda, who told the network she planned to move out of Toronto so she could legally own Darwin3.

The legal fight kept the story alive well past the initial news cycle. On December 16, 2012, Nakhuda filed suit against Story Book Farm and its president Sherri Delaney, arguing animal control had no right to seize Darwin and that the sanctuary was exploiting his fame with a "Dollars for Darwin" fundraising campaign7. Her four-day trial began May 30, 2013, and on September 13, 2013, Ontario Superior Court Judge Mary Vallee dismissed the suit, ruling Darwin qualified as a wild animal, not a pet, and that Nakhuda lost ownership the moment he escaped from the car5.

How to Use This Meme

The classic IKEA Monkey template pairs a photo of Darwin looking through the IKEA window, or standing in the parking lot in his shearling coat, with white block-caption text riffing on shopping mishaps or existential regret. The go-to line is "I was supposed to pick up Carl," a reference to the I Should Buy a Boat Cat macro that Reddit surfaced first8. Newer variations typically Photoshop Darwin into other IKEA scenes, dress him in different outfits, or use the original photo as a reaction image for feeling small and slightly lost.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (8)