In what’s probably the saddest and cutest news story of the week, a baby monkey named Punch (Punch-kun), rejected by his mother at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo, has won the internet’s heart by clinging to a stuffed IKEA orangutan for emotional support. As Mashable’s Crystal Bell writes, “In the wild, that would have meant certain death. At the zoo, where Punch was raised through hand-rearing, it meant something else: survival, and a substitute for the one thing zookeepers couldn’t provide.”
Stephen Colbert got the memo on the forlorn mini macaque, unpacking the story during Wednesday night’s Late Show.
“After his mom abandoned him — she said she was going out for a pack of bananas, I’m sure she’ll be back — Punch struggled to make friends with other monkeys in the exhibit, which is why they gave him the stuffed orangutan, and now he takes it everywhere,” Colbert said, explaining that the specific stuffed animal is IKEA’s DJUNGELSKOG.
“If you think Punch is sympathetic, wait till you see the official pictures of JUNGELSKOG. She looks like she’s regretting all of her life choices,” said Colbert, and…yeah. “Here’s the thing. We looked it up, and the DJUNGELSKOG retails for only $19.99, and honestly, we can all use a little comfort right about now. So I bought one. You’ll never leave me right, DJUNGELSKOG?”
