Monkey Closing Its Eyes

Submission 4,797

Part of a series on Monkeys / Apes. [View Related Entries]

About

Monkey Closing Its Eyes or Monkey Accepting Its Fate refers to a reaction GIF and viral video of a baby monkey closing its eyes after being placed down by a leopard. The original video was a scene in the nature documentary Eye of the Leopard by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. The scene was first posted to YouTube in 2014. In 2024, the monkey closing its eyes became a GIF caption trend on Twitter / X.

Origin

In 2006, the nature documentary Eye of the Leopard was released by National Geographic.^[1] In one scene of the film, a female leopard is shown carrying a baby monkey up into a tree where she puts the monkey down. The scene was shared by YouTuber^[2] Wildlife Films on April 23rd, 2014, gaining over 23.6 million views in 10 years (shown below).

The video gained memetic usage in early 2024 when the X^[3] account @TheeDarkCircle posted the scene on February 6th, 2024, gaining over 103.2 million views and 73,000 likes in one week. Then, on February 6th, 2024, X^[4] user @LordTheLoon replied with the shortened clip of the monkey closing its eyes, writing, "lil nigga made peace 😭," gaining over 25,000 likes in one week (shown below).

Spread

Others used the video on February 6th, 2024, like X^[5] user @Viboujee who quoted it, writing, "He look so relieved he took a minute to thank the Lord 😭," gaining over 293,000 likes in one week (shown below, left).

X^[6] user @moristiko replied to the video on February 6th, 2024, comparing the monkey to the Thousand Yard Stare meme, earning over 2,800 likes in one week (shown below, right).

On February 7th, 2024, X^[7] user @ayikamis shared a GIF of the monkey closing its eyes, writing, "Nah this gif is frying me," gaining over 27,000 likes in six days (shown below, left).

The GIF received further usage, evident in a post shared by X^[8] user @soberkravitz later on February 7th, 2024, captioned, "I really don’t know life at all." The tweet earned over 3,000 likes in six days (shown below, right).

Also on February 7th, 2024, X^[9] user @Ngvbe_50 mashed video with IShowSpeed Smiling Trying Not To Laugh, earning over 8,100 likes in six days (shown below).