July 21, 1925

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Joel Byers

On THIS DAY IN HISTORY! in 1925 – The “Monkey Trial” ended in Dayton, TN. John T. Scopes was convicted of violating the state law for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Tennessee state senators, representatives and religious leaders with a minimum 6th grade education proclaimed victory and paraded throughout the great state of Tennessee as they declared that their ancestors didn’t come from “no monkeys”. Instead they were directly descended from Adam and Eve, not Adam and Chim-Chim. Scopes’s conviction was later overturned after a successful defamation of character lawsuit was filed and won by Chim-Chim the Smoking Chimpanzee. Chim-Chim used the ground-breaking strategy of “You Tennessee goobers intermarry with Alabamians, Kentuckians, and Arkansians and you have the gall to feel superior to us primates, monkeys, and sub-humans.  And more importantly, there are no laws on your books to make bestiality illegal!” (Bestiality did not become a felony in Tennessee until 2009). Chim-Chim went on to say that “No meant NO! Not maybe if you bring me a banana, okay maybe a banana, but not a cheap-ass stick of celery.” The Judges who oversaw the Scopes Appeal were from Atlanta, Georgia and stated, “It is our opinion that the monkeys were libeled and the people of Tennessee need to crack a book, preferable one that teaches science or history or even dental hygiene.”

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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