Monkey tennis

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For the minigame, see Super Monkey Ball 2.

"Monkey Tennis" is a British pop culture phrase, first used in the late 1990s and popular throughout the 2000s. Originating as a joke in a television sitcom, it has come to be commonly used as an example of the hypothetical lowest common denominator television programme that it is possible to make. Programmes believed to have been poorly-conceived or of particularly low quality, especially within the reality television genre, are often compared to the "Monkey Tennis" idea in media coverage and popular discussion in the UK.

The term first appeared in "A Room With an Alan", the opening episode of the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge, originally broadcast on BBC Two in the UK on Monday November 3, 1997. In one scene the eponymous character of Partridge, a failed chat show host, desperately attempts to pitch programme ideas to an uninterested BBC executive, who has just cancelled his series. After failing to interest him in such ideas as Arm Wrestling With Chas & Dave, Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank, Inner-City Sumo and Cooking in Prison, Partridge comes up with a final spur-of-the-moment suggestion, "Monkey Tennis?", which is met with similar disdain.^[1] Steve Coogan, the star and co-writer of I'm Alan Partridge, said on a DVD commentary for the episode that the writing team came up with the idea when they decided that: "It had to be a two-word pitch that created an immediate visual image".^[2]

The title quickly gained currency in the UK as shorthand for poor programming ideas, and has often been mentioned or referred to in the media in the years following the original broadcast. When describing the opening ceremony of the 2001 World Athletics Championships in Edmonton, BBC News Online correspondent Tom Fordyce wrote that "The organisers exceeded my wildest dreams. All that was missing was monkey tennis and I could have died a happy man."^[3] Reviewing an evening's television for The Observer newspaper in 2005, Kathryn Flett wondered "Why did I recently squander such a lovely big bunch of superlatives on something which looks like Monkey Tennis, compared to this stunning work of unparalleled comedy genius?"^[4] Another television reviewer, Ian Johns of The Times, called Five's True CSI "about as misguided as picking up such Alan Partridge programme pitches as Monkey Tennis and Inner-City Sumo. Then again, I think his Cooking in Prison idea might now have a chance."^[5]

When Peter Fincham, the executive producer of I'm Alan Partridge, became controller of the BBC One channel in 2005, the show's producer and co-writer Armando Iannucci attended the press conference at which his appointment was officially announced and asked Fincham whether there would be a place for Monkey Tennis in his schedules. According to the Guardian Unlimited website's media section report, Fincham jokingly replied that he had "always said quite a few of those shows would have been commissioned."^[6]

Similarly, the term is frequently mentioned in general conversation on internet message boards and usenet groups when downmarket television programming is being discussed. Typical examples from archived Google Groups postings include: "a new show is lined up featuring celebrities taking up show jumping — called Only Fools on Horses. Perhaps Monkey Tennis will be next. I despair,"^[7] and "I haven't got a clue what Pimp My Ride is because I'm old but I did see a programme in the schedule called Dog Borstal. And yes, I'll mention Monkey Tennis to get it out of the way."^[8]