National Gorilla Suit Day

Over on his excellent blog, Mark Evanier is busy shaming other cartoonist bloggers to get on board and help promote National Gorilla Suit Day, which as everybody knows takes place on January 31st each year. I am ashamed to say I have not done my part.

The banner above links to this article (links removed as Mark took down those pages) by Mark about the mysterious origins of National Gorilla Suit Day. It began, as almost all nonsensical and idiotic things do, with Don Martin. A series of cartoons in the 1964 book Don Martin Bounces Back! concerns the misadventures of Fester Bestertester and his railings against various gorilla suit companies and the holiday National Gorilla Suit Day. Mark’s article goes into the details.

The best thing about National Gorilla Suit Day is that there isn’t much that needs to be done to celebrate this very important holiday. There are no gifts to buy or exchange that will drive up your credit card balances. No painted, unfertilized poulty zygotes to hide or place in baskets with chocolate effigies of Oryctolagus cuniculus and other confections for consumption by children. No need to cut a living conifer from the forest, drag it into your domicile, festoon it with bits of glass and plastic and wrap it with lighted wires conducting dangerous electricity while the tree itself dies, dries out and becomes more and more flammable. No need to carve out and remove the seeds and pulp from large, orange gourds and then place live flames within them while small children walk around in close proximity wearing lightweight cloth costumes. There are no pesky lights or decorations to put up around the outside of your home, unless of course you have a giant inflatable gorilla you stole from the roof of a used car dealership when you were in college and you still have it in a box in the rafters of your garage…. not that I know anyone who ever did anything like that. If I DID I would say they are encouraged to inflate that gorilla in their front yard and, if approached by the local constabulary, claim you bought it at a garage sale years ago.

No, all you need to do is put on your gorilla suit and go about the neighborhood knocking on doors and spread the good word about National Gorilla Suit Day. Scaring the bejeezus out of some of the old folks wouldn’t ruin your day, either. So, on January 31st wear your mangy, moth eaten simian garb with pride, and just say “I’m wearing a Gorilla Suit… and I’m okay!”