Can’t believe anything you read in person (or online) anymore…
It just mean testicles
Fun thought, but my first thought as a sailor is that this seems very insecure as the ship rolls about, so looked it up and it seems that brass monkeys were popular ornaments in the 1700s and the original phrase was, “Cold enough to freeze the nose off a brass monkey”
I have absolutely no evidence of this but my new theory is that it was Australians who changed it to “balls off a brass monkey” because thats what they do.
You in Torbay by any chance?
I, too, get Dull Men’s Club pushed to me by the Facebook algorithm. (Presuming that’s where you saw it!)
MCA with the bottle, D rocks the can,
Ad-Rock gets nice with Charlie Chan.
I happen to know a brass monkey and he has never lost his clackers even in the coldest weather. He did get some frost bite once on his knob end but that was cleared up with some cream.
Bullshit
Total bollocks. One of those famous fake etymologies or DOPEs (derivational-only popular etymology)
What a bunch of bollocks…
Have you heard the phrase, “put a sock in it?”
That funky junky
Ooo chimpanzee that
That funky monkey
The popular story is a myth. The notion that a brass tray (supposedly called a “brass monkey”) was used to hold cannonballs on a warship and that cold temperatures would contract the metal enough to cause the cannonballs to fall off has little to no historical backing. In reality, there is no documented evidence showing that such trays were ever standard naval equipment or that they functioned in that way. The phrase is most likely just a colorful idiom used to describe extremely cold weather rather than a literal account of naval practice.
Is this in Scarborough by any chance ? Was there not long ago on that boat if its the one im thinking of.
Right, didn’t happen.
NO! KARL! At no point did they “‘ave a little monkey ‘oldin’ the cannon balls”.
Play a record, you’re talking shit again.
All along I thought a brass monkey was just a funky monkey
Golden Hind in Brixham?
anyone ever drank a brass monkey before?
malt liquor and OJ might sound bad but it’s delicious
This seems like fake etymology
Obviously fake like all too-good-to-be-true “etymologies”. If it requires anything close to this long an explanation or if you can preface it by “did you know that…”, it’s a fake etymology.
I think I’ve seen an accurate etymology at a museum *once.* Out of hundreds of times.
BRASS MONKEY THAT FUNKY MONKEY
i sincerely doubt the margin would be so small that the brass contracting a few milimeters would spill the cannonballs.
if the margin was so small the balls would constantly spill due to the waves on a ship
Pretty sure that’s a lie.
It’s just tht brass is REALLY fucking cold due to its thermic and conductive properties.
Many statues of monkeys/animals may or would have balls in a situation they’d have been incredibly fkin cold.
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I swear I just saw this being debunked on one of the history subs.
Still a better origin story than 90% of what you hear at the pub
[Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brass-monkeyshines/)
Nope, sorry, it’s bullshit.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/brass-monkeyshines/
Why did they call the tray a monkey though ?
Can’t believe anything you read in person (or online) anymore…
It just mean testicles
Fun thought, but my first thought as a sailor is that this seems very insecure as the ship rolls about, so looked it up and it seems that brass monkeys were popular ornaments in the 1700s and the original phrase was, “Cold enough to freeze the nose off a brass monkey”
I have absolutely no evidence of this but my new theory is that it was Australians who changed it to “balls off a brass monkey” because thats what they do.
You in Torbay by any chance?
I, too, get Dull Men’s Club pushed to me by the Facebook algorithm. (Presuming that’s where you saw it!)
Hartlepool?
We just say “It’s taters out there today”
[That funky monkey.](https://youtu.be/nBbQyXZvkbA?si=pZ1WSEt-71ETJ0Kx)
Bovine feces, unfortunately.
Read caption in pirate drawl of course.
Is this on Cutty Sark? Sure I’ve seen it before.
MCA with the bottle, D rocks the can,
Ad-Rock gets nice with Charlie Chan.
I happen to know a brass monkey and he has never lost his clackers even in the coldest weather. He did get some frost bite once on his knob end but that was cleared up with some cream.
Bullshit
Total bollocks. One of those famous fake etymologies or DOPEs (derivational-only popular etymology)
What a bunch of bollocks…
Have you heard the phrase, “put a sock in it?”
That funky junky
Ooo chimpanzee that
That funky monkey
The popular story is a myth. The notion that a brass tray (supposedly called a “brass monkey”) was used to hold cannonballs on a warship and that cold temperatures would contract the metal enough to cause the cannonballs to fall off has little to no historical backing. In reality, there is no documented evidence showing that such trays were ever standard naval equipment or that they functioned in that way. The phrase is most likely just a colorful idiom used to describe extremely cold weather rather than a literal account of naval practice.
Is this in Scarborough by any chance ? Was there not long ago on that boat if its the one im thinking of.
Right, didn’t happen.
NO! KARL! At no point did they “‘ave a little monkey ‘oldin’ the cannon balls”.
Play a record, you’re talking shit again.
All along I thought a brass monkey was just a funky monkey
Golden Hind in Brixham?
anyone ever drank a brass monkey before?
malt liquor and OJ might sound bad but it’s delicious
This seems like fake etymology
Obviously fake like all too-good-to-be-true “etymologies”. If it requires anything close to this long an explanation or if you can preface it by “did you know that…”, it’s a fake etymology.
I think I’ve seen an accurate etymology at a museum *once.* Out of hundreds of times.
BRASS MONKEY THAT FUNKY MONKEY
i sincerely doubt the margin would be so small that the brass contracting a few milimeters would spill the cannonballs.
if the margin was so small the balls would constantly spill due to the waves on a ship
Pretty sure that’s a lie.
It’s just tht brass is REALLY fucking cold due to its thermic and conductive properties.
Many statues of monkeys/animals may or would have balls in a situation they’d have been incredibly fkin cold.
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