"Shock the Monkey" is a song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released in September 1982 as the second single from his fourth self-titled album, issued in the US under the title Security. The song peaked at number 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was Gabriel's first Top 40 hit in the US. In the UK, the song charted at number 58. According to AllMusic, the song has a "relentlessly repeated hook" that "sounded nothing like anything else on the radio at the time". Billboard called it a "mysterious but infectious track...which melds synthesizers, distinctive vocal and dance rhythms to fresh effect." Interpretation Due to its title and the content of the video, the song is frequently assumed to be either an animal rights song or a reference to the famous experiments by Stanley Milgram described in his book Obedience to Authority. It is neither, but the Gabriel song "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" from his 1986 album So does deal directly with Milgram. Gabriel has described "Shock the Monkey" as "a love song" that examines how jealousy can release one's basic instincts; the monkey is not a literal monkey, but a metaphor for one's feelings of jealousy. Gabriel has mentioned that the song's lyrical motif was inspired by King Kong's lightning powers in the film King Kong vs. Godzilla. Music video The track is known for its bizarre and disturbing music video, written and directed by Brian Grant of MGMM Studios. The video was played heavily in the early days of MTV. It features Gabriel (in white face paint) and a frightened-looking capuchin monkey. Gabriel appears in two guises; one is as a businessman/CIA-MK-Ultra-type in a dark suit, and the other as a "modern primitive" shaman painted and dressed in white with geometric markings in black on his face. The video cuts between two rooms, each vaguely resembling an office. A movie projector plays zoo footage of a gibbon (technically, a lesser ape, not a monkey) in both rooms. As the video proceeds, events in the 'normal' (black suit) office become increasingly irregular and disturbing with objects in the room in increasing disarray. Gabriel displays increasing pressure, anger, and fear as the chaos occurs, at one point being restrained by three little people. The office footage is increasingly interspersed with