FIRST, A TIGER IN YOUR TANK; NOW A MONKEY IN YOUR TRUNK

Thanks to a handful of commercials running in Oregon for the Suburban Auto Group, cars there can be equipped with a "Trunk Monkey" button. It's like having OnStar, but an actual chimp pops out of your car's trunk to come to your aid.

In one commercial, the chimp is armed with a shotgun to protect a young lady's honor from a very aggressive date in the front seat. In another, the chimp gives Zach Braff competition in scrubs as he helps deliver a baby by the side of the road.

It doesn't matter that in the Real World, the supposed product being advertised “lives in the trunk of any vehicle and helps to automate weight transfer at the rear wheels during spirited driving maneuvers.” (I can't figure out what that means. I at first thought that the Suburban Auto Group was a car insurance umbrella organization.) All that matters is that in the TV Universe, you can get a chimpanzee installed in your trunk for any kind of emergency.

(A few bugs are still in the sytem, however. There has to be some way found to prevent the Trunk Monkey from bribing a cop with doughnuts.)

Right now, the commercials' concept is localized to Oregon, but it's still enough to apply to all of "Telemerica".

Offhand, I can't think of any power car out there in any current shows - It's not like the old days of KITT and the General Lee. - in which the Trunk Monkey might take up residence. But if anybody should get one installed, it should be Lieutenant Columbo in his old Peugeot. Sooner or later, that Trunk Monkey will come in handy.

And then they can team up to fight crime!

You can see all the Trunk Monkey blipverts here.

[Thanks to Tim Nudd at adfreak.com]

BCnU!
Tele-Toby