Recently, another animal received the internet’s collective emotional projection: a baby Japanese macaque named Punch. He is named after a manga artist, Monkey Punch, who was born Kazuhiko Katō in 1937. “Monkey Punch” was originally a pen name suggested by an editor who thought it sounded amusingly Western. Monkey Punch died in 2019 at age 81, but by then, Lupin III had spanned five decades. In a strange loop, the name Monkey Punch now circles back to a real monkey named Punch.

Source: Punch March 15, 2026 17:54 UTC