The Spongmonkeys are an Internet phenomenon, created by Joel Veitch, that crossed over into television in the form of Quiznos commercials. They appear to be a pair of graphically edited tarsiers with human mouths, and appear on the web at the rathergood.com website. These creatures float in the air in front of a hydrangea bush while singing a song called "We Like The Moon". One of the Spongmonkeys plays a guitar, while the other sings.
The name "spongmonkeys" originated on the B3ta website, where "spong" is a slang term for adding oversized eyes to an image.[1]
In early 2004 the Spongmonkeys began appearing in television advertisements for Quiznos singing an altered version of their song called "We Love the Subs."[2] One commercial featured the oft-imitated line "they got a pepper bar," referring to the self-serve assortments of peppers that are a Quizno's selling point. The comments on the commercials were mixed, and a few months later the commercials stopped airing.
The Spongmonkeys Quiznos commercial was a topic on an episode of VH1's Best Week Ever. The Modern Humorist said that "they are what you see before you die" (a reference to one YTMND site featuring a cat on a keyboard floating in space).
Like many Internet cult phenomena (such as Badger Badger Badger) it was first launched in the B3ta newsletter in January 2003, although the first appearance on the site dates back to a post on the b3ta message board in June 2002.
The Spongmonkeys have recently appeared in the seventh episode of Veitch's Tales of the Blode series. They've also starred in a new cartoon called Can you Imagine a World with Hover Bacon?.
The song "We Like The Moon" is now available for download in Rock Band via the Rock Band Network. The song is credited to "rathergood.com" rather than "spongmonkeys".