Favorite Tropes: The Skill Monkey
My favorite role in any friend group, fictional or otherwise, is the skill monkey. I personally fill this role a lot in my groups, so I wanted to talk about it for a bit. Rambling ahead.
When I say “skill monkey”, I don’t mean the friend who’s booksmart or even that dude who actually knows how cars work. I mean the friend who has the most seemingly useless knowledge ever that somehow turns out to save the day. The kind of person who’s dabbled in pretty much every out-of-place skill you can think of. It’s the difference between actually studying and binging Wikipedia and Reddit at 3 in the morning. They're not booksmart at all, but they're still very knowledgeable. Bonus points if this skill or knowledge is never mentioned until it’s actually needed, or is mentioned with zero context whatsoever like during group banter.
The Skill Monkey is that friend who will randomly bring up experiences and skills and knowledge they've had that seems so nonsensical and weird in the most charming way possible. Like maybe the gang is fighting a killer clown and it turns out they’ve dabbled in clown college or know a lot about the history of clowns. Or a situation comes where they need to lead an enemy away and they’re suddenly able to throw their voice because SURPRISE! They were a ventriloquist for a year or two! Or they need to contact a Spirit and the skill monkey is already pulling out the Planchette and Pendulum because they just randomly had it with no prior context.
This makes a character who’s perfectly set up for both comedy and badassery. It’s perfect for Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass characters, or characters who seem stupid on the surface but suddenly become badass and amazing at something when the situation calls for it. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a very good video on this too. The skill monkey is the character who saves everybody’s asses by using a skill that no normal person would ever casually know. They’re particularly versatile and useful in a plot because they can know almost anything so long as the situation calls for it, though it works better if it’s a particularly strange skill. It leaves the audience wondering how the skill monkey will get everyone out this time, or what else they might know. Loads of room for both canon characterization and potential headcanons for the fandom to come up with.
But it’s important to make sure that the skill monkey doesn’t know everything. If they solve literally every single problem by themselves, it gets boring really really fast. That’s why the skill monkey works best in groups where they can work off of others and everyone’s unique skills and knowledge plays a role. Skill monkeys work really well in mystery, paranormal or fantasy series, particularly if it also has a comedy aspect. And remember to give the skill monkey certain quirks and defining traits beyond their skills - like maybe they’re constantly tired because they’re up all night researching new things. Or maybe it’s the opposite and they’re so full of energy that they rarely even need to sleep, hence why they have so much time for these things. Maybe they’re a non-human creature who doesn’t even need to sleep, or has lived for like 500 years so they’ve had the time to gather all their knowledge. What’s their aesthetic? Their defining personality traits? Stuff like that.
Skill monkeys are also fun because both the writer and even the audience can project their unique skillset onto them. If the writer knows a lot about witchcraft, so will the skill monkey. Got really into Mayan civilizations back in middle school? Give the story a plot point revolving around that and let the skill monkey work their magic! They practically write themselves, so personally I hope more people use this archetype in the future.
Anyways, end of rambling. Stay tuned for more Favorite Trope Dissections in the future!
