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To kill the monkey

Posted by Miri Barak on April 04, 2003

In Reply to: To kill the monkey posted by Lewis on April 04, 2003

: : "I tell you boys, when I get home I scrub myself from top to bottom... to kill the monkey (jowls).

: : Does anyone have a clue to the meaning of the expression to kill the monkey, and the jowls' thing?
: : is it a slang, or an expression?
: : Thank you very much

: : The text is taken from an Irish movie "saltwater".

: the "jowls" bit might be to describe the action of stroking an imaginary beard which is a way of casting doubt upon the truth of what you yourself are saying. the gesture is also called to "chinny" and th emost popular version I heard was "chinny reckon" pronounced 'reck-on' - i.e. I do not believe/agree with you. There is also a gesture used in the deaf speech (British Sign Language (BSL)) which has they same meaning.

: In the context, your quote might have meant that he said he was going to scrub himself but was not intending to do so. The kill the monkey expression could be a euphemism for masturbating as in "choke the chicken" - something not entirely unknown to take place in showers.

Thank you Lewis
: I found that manky is dirty, untidy in Irish slang, and I thought that maybe it is a pun on the words monkey and manky, instead of killing the dirt he is killing the monkey (a name the teacher applies for some of the boys in class. But still I have a problem of this jowls.
: I know it is a hard question and still harder because I have to translate it.

: What do you think?
: Thanks Miri

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