Ever heard of the ‘hundredth monkey effect?’ In the 50’s, some Japanese scientists observed a group of monkeys begin dropping sweet potatoes into water. Apparently, one of the monkeys dropped a potato into the river by accident and realized that it tasted better after having been washed. He told the other monkeys and from then on, they all washed their potatoes in the river before eating. What’s important is that the scientist claimed, once a certain number of monkeys in a particular group (a 100 or so) started doing this, all the other groups of monkeys started doing it too. Instantly! It didn’t matter if there was any contact between monkey groups: they could be on different islands, separated by large bodies of water and still the behavior was passed on.
Crazy huh? And it explains everything! How else would T-Pain and I come out with the same track at the same time? I show 100 people the Take Your Shirt Off song and then BAM, some new music blogger dude is emailing me a link to the new T-Pain single – subject heading “looks like T-Pain beat you to the punch.” (I showed new music blogger dude my version back when only 49 people had heard it and he didn’t think much of it).
Too bad the hundredth monkey effect is a load of crap. The study was discredited back in 1985 when somebody decided to look into it. Turns out, the scientists omitted the fact that the monkeys actually swim between islands, that it took years for the behavior to manifest itself in a new group and that sweet potatoes aren’t part of the monkeys’ natural diet – the potatoes were provided by the scientists.
Well, 100 monkeys notwithstanding, I’m pretty sure I started washing my sweet potatoes before T-Pain did. And I don’t wash my potatoes with auto-tune. Rather, I hand wash mine, with bio-friendly detergent and allow them to dry before serving…ok, this metaphor is getting ridiculous, so let me sum up my point: I’m upset that the new T-Pain single happens to have the same name as the new A-Vice single, but there is nothing I can do about it. So, I’m searching for some kind of cosmic explanation to ease my suffering. Let me know what you think.
– A. Vice
