How a little monkey became a meme phenomenon
01.06.2026, DPA
His story moved millions around the world to tears: the plight of a young Japanese macaque named Punch. Rejected by his mother shortly after birth at a zoo near Japan's capital, Tokyo, he found comfort in a toy orangutan.
Heart-wrenching videos of the little monkey being chased by other macaques in his enclosure, dragging his soft toy behind him, swiftly went viral.
In countless memes, Punch became a symbol of contemporary anxieties – loneliness, vulnerability, but also resilience.
Keepers at Ichikawa City Zoo suspect that Punch's mother may have been overwhelmed by the intense summer heat during her first birth.
In such situations, mother animals often prioritize their own survival.
Stuffed toy as surrogate mother
Shortly after birth, macaque infants typically cling to their mother's fur for warmth, security and development. Deprived of this, Punch initially sought alternatives such as rolled-up towels provided by keepers.
But he ultimately gravitated toward a stuffed orangutan from Ikea’s toy collection.
After the zoo featured Punch with his stuffed toy on X, the hashtag #HangInTherePunch and its Japanese equivalent went viral.
Early footage shows Punch being pushed away by other macaques or dragged aggressively around in circles before he runs behind a rock and clings to his soft toy.
Later clips showing another monkey grooming and comforting him briefly reassured many viewers online. In other moments, Punch is seen leaving his surrogate companion to interact and play with others.
"Punch is us"
"Our aim is for him to live in a group," Takashi Yasunaga, the head of the Ichikawa City Council department responsible for the Tokyo zoo, tells dpa. "I believe he is well on his way there."
What some on social media view as bullying is, according to experts, perfectly normal behaviour among macaques. Yet many interpret the videos as behaviour they recognize from their own lives.
"Punch is us. We are Punch. Punch is more than a little monkey. He is all of us," one user posted on Instagram. "In every shy glance and every brave step, we see ourselves. We see resilience, curiosity, and the quiet courage it takes to keep going," says the post, whose popularity suggests millions of others on social media feel and think the same way.
"Watching Punch find refuge in his plushie reminds us that sometimes, comfort isn’t just a 'luxury,' it’s the only place where the world feels safe again," writes another, expressing the general sense of world-weariness in times of war and crisis.
Unsurprisingly, Punch has also resonated strongly in Japan, where loneliness is a growing social issue in an aging society.
What connects Punch to a penguin
Punch has frequently been compared online to a solitary penguin from Werner Herzog's documentary "Encounters at the End of the World" (2007), who breaks away from his group and walks alone toward the distant mountains instead of toward the sea.
Clips from Herzog's melancholic narration also went viral earlier this year. Like Punch, the penguin has been embraced online as a figure of individuality and quiet determination.
"The interest in many of these animal stories stems from the fact that they are easy to reinterpret. Animal stories are simple – you don't have to ask why; you have a basic sympathy for them that requires no further research," says German philosopher Kai Denker, who specializes in meme research, in an interview with dpa.
"By reducing complexity, the stories make it easy to feel empathy. It's a kind of feel-good zone – which can also be a form of escapism," he says.
"Many can easily be translated into hero stories, in which the dramatic triangle of hero, villain and victim can be found. Here, Punch is the victim, the other monkey the villain. For example, you could see weightlifters using this to motivate themselves to train in order to defend Punch," says Denker.
A meme on X, inspired by the science fiction film "Planet of the Apes," shows a grim-faced monkey with a rifle and a stuffed orangutan in his arms – suggesting that in 2030, Punch will take his revenge.
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