Goofing off is a type of "monkey business".
“Monkey business” is a slang phrase which has three main meanings:
- wasting time, or effort, on some foolish project “playing computer games all the time is monkey business.”
- an activity that is considered silly, or stupid, or time-wasting, shenanigans. “The boys prank on their teacher did not endear themselves to her. The monkey business landed them in the principal’s office”
- (idiom) An activity that may be considered illegal, questionable, or a vice, but not felonious. For this definition, read on about U.S. Senator Gary Hart.
There was an American senator, Gary Hart, who was suspected of infidelity. He was running for President in 1987. When he a reporter asked him about rumors about his cheating on his wife, he foolishly dared the reporter to prove it.
Bad idea.
The reporter trailed him and and discovered that he spent time on a yacht in Florida called the “Monkey Business” with a model named Donna Rice. A photograph of Rice seated on Senator Hart’s lap ended his political aspirations for President.
He shouldn’t have resorted to monkey business with Donna on the yacht Monkey Business!
(An aptly named yacht, don’t you agree?)
Monkeys have a reputation for being clever, yet naughty animals. I believe Chinese literature is replete with such monkey stories.
Does Chinese have an equivalent slang term “monkey business“?
This "Monkey Business" photo ended Senator Gary Hart's bid for the White House. Donna Rice is on his lap.
