Slightly bonkers Japanese-based blogger Marxy has just updated his Neomarxisme site with some additional explanation on the naming of Donkey Kong, based on Japanese cultural knowledge and all kinds of alternative thinking.

He starts by fixing the broken: "Before the internet could assume its fundamental duties of myth-busting and old-wives-tale-wrastlin', there was a rumor going around that Nintendo meant to call the gorilla from landmark game Donkey Kong "Monkey Kong," but the "M" got changed into a "D" along the way." Or that Miyamoto "found the word "donkey" in a (completely worthless) dictionary as a synonym for "dumb."" But no: "Snopes debunks the stuffing out of both theories and explains that Miyamoto picked "Kong" from "King Kong" (but not King Kong, legally speaking) and "Donkey" to "convey a sense of stubbornness.""

But Marxy goes further: " I also seem to remember quotes from Nintendo that they wanted to make the character a ridiculous and laughable version of King Kong. So, what word acts as an antonym to the grace and divine providence represented by a king? A donkey makes sense looking back onto the problem, but why pick a donkey out of all the second-class creatures that could possibly denote the opposite of a king?"

Apparently: "In Japan, almost everyone is familiar with the old story - "The King's Got Donkey Ears" (王様の耳はロバの耳）- which comes from an unnecessary add-on to the King Midas "everything I touch turns to gold" myth. A god gives King Midas donkey ears to visually mark the king's idiocy, only his hairdresser knows... The name of this myth perfectly sets up the "King - Donkey" binary. The King gets goofy looking donkey ears until he starts acting with a little more class. So if you are going to make an opposite of King Kong, what do you name the guy? Donkey Kong." I have no idea if this is on the money, but it's fun thinking.