monkey wearing fez

[wayanos]

When did monkeys start wearing a fez and why

[Lakitu]

What is a fez?

How many Monkeys have you seen wearing one?

[Quizmonster]

If you remember the comedian, Tommy Cooper, you'll know what a fez is. It's the hat - generally reddish in colour - that he always wore in his act. It was originally associated with the city of Fez in Morocco, where such hats were made, and it became the national headgear of the Turks.
Organ-grinders - men who busked using a mechanical organ to create 'music' - often had a monkey as a companion and to attract punters. The monkey generally wore such a fez.
All I can suggest as to the reason is that such street-entertainers may have started in the Mediterranean region where the fez was commonly worn. Apart from that, we may as well ask why Tommy Cooper wore one, too!

[monkeyeyes]

To distract the barman from the fact that I wasn't 18..............

[fredpuli47]

Well, QM, if you really want to know:
Tommy Cooper was in Egypt during the War. One night he was performing in the NAAFI.He suddenly decided that he needed a pith helmet for one gag. He hadn't got one, so (with typical Cooper absurdity) he grabbed a fez from a waiter.He looked so comical in this fez that he decided to keep it as part of the act. Later on he mastered the art of getting laughs by just a look; indeed the audience would laugh on seeing him;but back then the fez helped a lot and he kept it as his trademark prop.

[Lakitu]

Thank you Quiz! I had a picture of a monkey in a beanie hat or something!

LOL @ monkeyeyes! very good!

[Quizmonster]

Thanks for that, Fred. So Tommy and his fez was pretty much as I suggested the fezzed monkey was; namely, the result of a Mediterranean occasion - during which it seemed like a good idea - which just stuck as a 'trademark'!