And although the script never gives him any "funny" material to work with, his no-sell, deadpan deliveries are hilarious at the right times. On top of that, The Monkey oozes Stephen King.

The Monkey is yet another cautionary tale about why this genre hybrid rarely lands. It’s too timid to be genuinely scary, too self-serious to be truly funny, and too convoluted by its own ...

It's really hard to be funny. It's even harder to be funny and get paid for it. But the cartoon editor of The New Yorker, Bob Mankoff, has made a living making people laugh for decades.