Being skeptical is fine. Being investigative is much more important. Have you found any fact that this Jack the Baboon story is false, yet? Let me know.

[en.wikipedia.org]. Here's the Wikipedia article about him. The way it's written sounds a little more plausible. Maybe true.

@Organist1 The article in Wikipedia is more plausible primarily because of the phrase “under supervision” which (suspiciously) doesn’t appear in the History Daily article. This omission serves to enhance the reader’s amazement: a sign of emotional manipulation by the authors, I would suggest. Overall, the story has a tabloid feel to it, as mentioned below.

@NostraDumbass Sounds like a legend, which may have begun with a disabled guy and his pet. There may be some truth to it, but these things tend to snowball. Someone wrote a children's book about it. I'll look into it some more, just because it's interesting. Animals can be trained to do all kinds of responsible things, like being service animals.

@Ryo1 Short of inventing an HG Wells time machine there is no way to accurately investigate what happened in 19th c. South Africa regarding a story of this nature. Should I just take the news reports of the time at face value? Could they not have been embellished in order to increase sales? Can you confirm their accuracy 140 years after the alleged event? Let me know.

@NostraDumbass Look, we at least agree that it's a charming story. It's even become a best-selling book. Let millions of people enjoy reading it. Let's leave it at that.

He was definitely underpaid...

At least!

Probably why I like most cats more than most people..

@TomMcGiverin Most? I’d say all!! Only humans are evil.

@CuddyCruiser Many have that capacity but many more are the opposite.

The previous POTUS fits the description.

Many jobs can be done by a trained monkey or baboon. One was in the White House for 4 years.

@DenoPenno Actually, I think it was more of a jackass...

@TomMcGiverin That was a stinkbug behind the Resolute desk.

It could be just a story. To me this reads like tabloid reporting.

@NostraDumbass It does sound like that. However, I looked it up, and apparently there has been a lot written about this from other sources. Whether it's exaggerated or not, I don't know. Monkees are very intelligent as we know, so who knows how trainable they are to do a certain task?

@Organist1 The Monkees were Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith, Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones. The monkeys are macaques, guenons, etc. (Sorry, couldn’t resist that).

@NostraDumbass Sorry.. spell correct aaarrgh! I think that happens because I talk non-stop music and bands usually with people. Of course it would help to proofread. Lol!