The Censor Monkeys are a group of minor characters featured on House of Mouse. Inspired by the three wise monkeys, they are a trio of primates who are the network censors of the eponymous nightclub. Like the original wise monkeys, they were always shown with one of them covering his eyes ("See no evil"), another covering his ears ("Hear no evil"), and the last one covering his mouth and thus never talking ("Speak no evil"). Their appearances on the show were a jab at the moral restrictions placed on the cartoons, and the censorship that past theatrical cartoons from the 1920s-1960s (such as those by Disney) had endured in televised reruns since the 1950s.
The Censor Monkeys made their first appearance in the show's second episode, "Big Bad Wolf Daddy". They interrupt the club's showing of the short Donald's Charmed Date, protesting an allegedly violent scene where Donald Duck slides along a roller coaster track and stumbles through a shooting gallery, bumper cars, and a hall or mirrors, but still remains unharmed in the end of said scene, claiming that in reality Donald would've suffered a gruesome fate of having broken bones or worse from going through such danger. They order Mickey to have the cartoon changed so that Donald is protected from all this by wearing a helmet, pillows, and an inner tube throughout the sequence, and that the accompanying music and sound effects are replaced with light-hearted audio. Mickey obliges and re-shows the preceding sequence with the Monkeys' suggested changes, but not before having a giant safe dropped on them, making a comical sound effect as it does so. ("Was that comical enough?")
The Monkeys had a brief reappearance in the very next episode, "The Three Caballeros". When Donald, having renamed himself The Duck Formerly Known as Donald, is going about passing merchandise of his new look to the guests, the Monkeys object to this, saying that they will not tolerate product placement of Donald Duck merchandise on the show. Donald's agent, however, assures them that this is okay because it is actually Duck Formerly Known as Donald merchandise. The Monkeys concede to this and then suddenly the giant safe drops on them again, this time with the "Hear no evil" Monkey stepping out to remind the viewers that he and his partners are okay. However, they would not appear on the series again after this.
Gallery[]