# Infinite Monkey Theorem Infinite Monkey Theorem is a probability idea stating that monkeys hitting random typewriter keys for infinite time will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. After its 20th-century math origin and nods in Hitchhiker's Guide and The Simpsons, webcomic jokes appeared online in 2007, and by 2019 two panels from a 1990 Animal Man comic were being used on image boards as a reaction to nonsensical posts. ## Origin The theorem itself traces back to French mathematician Émile Borel's 1913 paper on statistical mechanics and his 1914 book Le Hasard, where random-typing animals illustrate probability over infinite trials[2]. Douglas Adams' 1978 radio play The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the 1993 Simpsons episode 'Last Exit to Springfield' later pushed the idea into general pop culture, and Grant Morrison worked it into Animal Man #25 in July 1990[1]. As a web joke, the earliest known documented example is a June 26, 2007 IRK Works strip archived on the Wayback Machine, in which the monkey finishes a book but it is a Danielle Steel novel instead of Shakespeare[3]. A second webcomic by Kudelka Cartoons went up in November 2010 with its own spin on the premise[1]. The Animal Man reaction crop came much later, archived on Know Your Meme by user Dioxin Jimmy on June 5, 2019[1]. - **Platform:** Webcomics (IRK Works) / image boards (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview Infinite Monkey Theorem jokes online tend to split into two shapes. One is the setup-punchline webcomic, where a monkey at a typewriter hands over not Hamlet but something mundane, like a Danielle Steel romance novel in the 2007 IRK Works strip[3]. The other, more recent format is a cropped reaction image made from two panels of Grant Morrison's July 1990 issue of Animal Man, which show a monkey slowly tapping out a page while a caption pokes fun at the odds against it[1]. The reaction panels get posted under confusing threads or incoherent replies, serving the same job as the Jesse, What the Fuck Are You Talking About image: an implicit 'you are the random-key monkey'[1]. Twitter and Tumblr accounts also run the gag straight, with Ricky Gervais tweeting a one-liner about the math in 2013 and a didyouknowblog Tumblr post summarizing the theorem picking up thousands of reblogs in 2014[1]. The humor leans on the gap between the clean math and the obvious uselessness of real monkeys. ## How It Spread Before the web format caught on, researchers tried the theorem in real life. In May 2003, the Guardian reported that six Sulawesi crested macaques at Paignton Zoo, working with Plymouth University's MediaLab on a £2,000 Arts Council project, produced five pages mostly filled with the letter S and nothing resembling an English word[4]. Lead researcher Geoff Cox called it less an experiment than a performance piece about the gap between animals and random processes[4]. In August 2011, Reno programmer Jesse Anderson ran a virtual version on Amazon servers, and on September 23, 2011 he announced his simulated monkeys had reproduced A Lover's Complaint[5]. CNET's Daniel Terdiman pushed back days later, pointing out the program was matching nine-character blocks rather than generating the poem in sequence, which he argued was not the theorem as commonly understood[6]. The debate kept the idea circulating on tech blogs through the early 2010s[6]. The meme layer grew on top of that coverage. Comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted a joke using the theorem on July 18, 2013, and a didyouknowblog Tumblr post on April 2, 2014 ran up thousands of reblogs; an r/gaming Redditor also used it in an October 2014 GamerGate post about Kotaku[1]. Starting mid-2019, the Animal Man two-panel crop took hold as a reaction image for nonsensical threads, with the Know Your Meme archive entry added that June[1]. ## How to Use Posters typically drop the two Animal Man panels as a silent reply to a baffling or word-salad post, implying the original poster is the typewriter monkey. For the straight joke version, people often quote the premise and swap Shakespeare for a modern book, a bad tweet or a company's PR copy. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Infinite Monkey Theorem? It is a probability theorem stating that monkeys typing randomly for infinite time will almost surely produce any given text, like Shakespeare's complete works, and online it is used as a joke template and a reaction image sourced from Animal Man #25[2][1]. ### Where did Infinite Monkey Theorem come from? The math goes back to Émile Borel's 1913 paper and 1914 book Le Hasard[2]. The internet joke took off with an IRK Works webcomic on June 26, 2007 and a reaction crop from the 1990 comic Animal Man that caught on in mid-2019[3][1]. ### What does Infinite Monkey Theorem mean? Mathematically it means that with infinite random trials, any finite text will eventually appear[2]. As a meme it means the opposite in practice, since real tests like the 2003 Paignton Zoo macaque run produced only pages of the letter S[4]. ### How do you use Infinite Monkey Theorem? People post the two Animal Man panels as a silent reply to baffling or incoherent posts, or they quote the premise and swap Shakespeare for whatever text they want to mock, like Ricky Gervais did in a July 2013 tweet[1]. ### Is Infinite Monkey Theorem still popular? It is a classic that still turns up, with the Animal Man reaction image staying in circulation on image boards since 2019 and older webcomic riffs still getting reposted[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/may/09/science.arts]() 2. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem]() 3. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071011001149/http://www.irkworks.com/Comics/034_inifinite_monkey_theorem.htm]() 4. [https://www.jesse-anderson.com/2011/09/a-few-million-monkeys-randomly-recreate-shakespeare/]() 5. [https://www.cnet.com/culture/virtual-monkeys-recreate-shakespeare-methinks-not/]() 6. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/infinite-monkey-theorem-monkey-typing]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/infinite-monkey-theorem-monkey-typing Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library