- cheetah7071
- Oct 20, 2010
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honk honk
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College Slice
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The presence of funky kong in this month's games chat thread poll reminded me of this saga, from 2018. For context, spudsbuckley was a very lovely poster who, after this, was banned+100k hour probed. It sucked rear end that this is what it took to get them gone, but it's still a great series of posts to read
I'm pretty sure Funky Kong is cultural appropriation somehow so I'm off to write an essay on how you should all feel ashamed because you know that he exists and it is definitely something that should matter in your life.
Hello.
Spudsbuckley, you have 1 week to write a 1000 word essay on exactly what you just said.
Rules:
1) It must be serious.
2) It must use valid examples.
3) You must link it to Persona 5 and your odd views on why homosexuals "shouldn't be so thin skinned" about their portrayal.
If after a week you have not done it you can have a nice time out.
If somebody else in this thread beats you to it, then they can decide on your punishment.
Enjoy! 
Funky Kong, Surfing, and Cultural Appropriation
Funky Kong (ファンキーコング Fankī Kongu) is a character introduced in Donkey Kong Country (1994) for the SNES. Donkey Kong Country was developed by Rare, a western company, and not Nintendo, a Japanese company and holders of the rights to Donkey Kong. This is critical information for further in this essay.
Pictured: Funky Kong's render in Donkey Kong Country (1994, Rare)
1994 was a peak year for surfing culture in the west. The former West Coast Surfing Championship expanded and became known as the US Open of Surfing. The film Endless Summer II, often regarded as one of the best surfing films ever made, was released. It is natural that Rare, a western developer with direct insight into these trends, would take them as a small influence on their work. This in itself is not appropriation - surfing is enjoyed by people of all races, and is an internationally recognized sport.
However, it is worth looking into the origins of surfing culture, to see where the problems begin to arise.
Surfing, as some readers might know, started as in Polynesia. Fishermen would ride out to sea on planks of wood, stand on them, and catch fish using the board as a platform. However, the act of riding the plank of wood itself was enjoyable enough, and so the Polynesians cultivated it into a pasttime. While it was still used to catch fish, it was also used simply for the enjoyment of riding the waves.
Even contemporary surfing began in, quite critically, *pre*-colonial Hawaii. Those higher up in society would often lay claim to the best beaches, and even the act of constructing a surfboard held religious significance. Surfing was not at the core of Hawaiian society, but it was an important aspect of it. The best surfers gained respect among their peers, even if they were commoners.
When Hawaii was colonized, surfing suffered a sharp decline. Smallpox and other diseases were common, and when the sugar plantations were built, workers from places like Japan and China, with no knowledge of surfing or any form of Hawaiian culture, took the place of native Hawaiians as more and more of them passed away from disease and poverty.
As if that was not humiliating enough, Hawaii was essentially forced by America to become a territory. Citizens had no voting rights, and Christian missionaries discouraged actions that showed any fealty to a religion other than their own. This included surfing, and the practice was rare. Native Hawaiians posed in loincloths at popular surfing locales, boards in hand, for the photographs of tourists, but this was a rare thing. The beaches that had once been home to vibrant communities of surfers were now sideshows, carnival tents for a few onlookers and the Hawaiian men that still felt the call of the ocean.
In 1907, the author Jack London came to Hawaii with his wife. London was, and still is, a respected author, with a focus on nature and its wonders. His most famous novels, White Fang and Call of the Wild, focused on wolves. The hotel they were staying at was located near a beach, and the beach had a few surfers - Native Hawaiians and those of mixed descent, a small clique called the Waikiki Swimming Club. Jack London was fascinated by this sport, and the greatest of the surfers in the clique, a young Irish/Hawaiian named George Freeth.
That same year, starting the novel while still on vacation with help from a journalist named Alexander Hume Ford, London published A Royal Sport: Surfing in Waikiki.
"Where but the moment before was only the wide desolation and invincible roar, is now a man, erect, full statured, not-struggling frantically in that wild movement, not buried and crushed and buffeted by those mighty monsters, but standing above them all, calm and superb, poised on the giddy summit, his feet buried in the churning foam, the salt smoke rising to his knees, and all the rest of him in the free air and flashing sunlight, and he is flying through the air, flying forward, flying fast as the surge on which he stands. He is a Mercury-a brown Mercury. His heels are winged, and in them is the swiftness of the sea."
London had a clear fascination and love of the sport, and as soon as his short story was published, fans were eager to see it in action. In the days before even film reels, thee was only one way to accomplish this: Freeth was invited to California by railroad magnate Henry Huntington. With Huntington's endorsement, Freeth displayed his talents and athleticism at a few events to promote Huntington's business interests.
Here we can see a clear trend emerging: surfing as a cog in the gears of capitalism. London's short story, while blatantly indulgent, can be excused. But Huntington, whatever his motivations, used surfing as a prop: a way to increase revenue, and nothing more.
Even London's actions, in later contexts, begin to sting. In later years, as surfing experienced its boom in the 1950s and onwards, many 'beach bums' - white, middle-classed, 14-30 - would describe the spiritual experience of riding the waves, how it led them to a deep epiphany. Yet these were epiphanies the Polynesians were having thousands of years ago. Without a journalist around to immortalize their words, and without the motivation of rebelling against a parent, or a government.
Which brings us back to Funky Kong.
Funky Kong is a gorilla in a surfing hat.
It's not even a particularly good surfing hat. The shades and bandana could just as easily imply a biker, or perhaps Hollywood Hulk Hogan. The only thing tying Funky Kong to surfing is, quite literally, the surfboard in his hands. He peppers his sentences with 'dude' and 'woah,' but Funky Kong is a one note joke. Donkey Kong Country features several characters like this - being a super nintendo game with no voice acting, extended cutscenes, or indeed much of a plot, its characters exist primarily for gameplay. Funky Kong exists to provide transportation to the player, quick travel back to already completed levels on his seaplane. He also hosts a small fishing minigame, perhaps a tie to the roots of surfing, but more than likely just a thing people do at the sea.
You'll note that at no point during any of this does Funky Kong actually surf.
Surfing is a prop, an adjective put in front of the word 'Gorilla.' The only thing keeping them from literally calling him Surf Kong is that a Hong Kong-based company called Surf Kong already exists, though whether Rare was aware of this is up in the air.
In fact, surfing means so little to Funky Kong that you could literally just remove it from him and it would still be, functionally, the same character.
Pictured: Funky Kong in Donkey Kong 64 (2000, Rare)
Huh.
Funky Kong, and by extension Rare, did not cause the centuries of colonization, oppression, and gentrification that led surfing to where it is today, a half-remembered fad of the 50s to 70s and occasional Olympic sport. In Hawaii, many native Hawaiians, suffering in poverty, cannot even afford a surfboard. Especially not one that would make them remotely competitive at surfing events. Indeed, Hawaii competes separately from the US in pro surfing, due to being excluded from competing officially in the past.
The people who loved this sport, who invented it, barred from competing in it by the people who adopted it as a fad.
Funky Kong is an example of that 'fad's short shelf life - his mannerisms were fairly dated even in the 90s, and in 2018 the only part of him that is even recognizable to modern youth is the surfboard in his hand. Even then, surfing is a rare sport. Hard to practice due to geography, and how much coordination it requires.
Surfing has been chewed up by capitalism and spat back out, pro surfboards that can cost upwards of a thousand dollars, decorated in the emblems of corporations. Funky Kong did not do this, but Funky Kong is a disquieting example of how easily this has filtered down through American society, and how few people stop to notice it. The creators of Funky Kong probably had little to no idea of any of this. Certainly, very few of the children that played Donkey Kong Country back in 1994 would have.
Funky Kong doesn't know, either.
Funky Kong just has a new Funky Mode.
cheetah7071 fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Apr 1, 2023
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Mar 24, 2023 20:12
