Trukk not munky
- Optimus prime has gone from a mack truck to a damn gorilla. Every transformer fan I know almost wants to cry when they go into a store and see what Transformers have become.
- — rob "the choda" smith, November 1996
"Trukk not Munky" (or "Truk not Munky") is a phrase used by Transformers fans derisively towards those that complain about changes to the mythos.
How did this phrase come into use? The answer is surprisingly hard to find; history is quickly lost online. Some records do exist, however, such as the alt.toys.transformers archives.
During Beast Wars, very serious posts bemoaning that "Optimus should be a truck, not a stupid monkey" were not uncommon, as indicated by the Usenet quote above. They took various forms, and were quickly parodied. Rob Powers was particularly fond of these parodies, which he usually formed as variations on the phrase "Why is Optimus a stupid monkey instead of a cool truck", with assorted intentional misspellings and cacography for humorous effect. By June 2000,<ref>The original post</ref> his parody seems to have become fairly standardized in form, but it was not "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" yet.
This condensed form first appeared in early 2001 (the single-K form seems a few months older, but the doubled K soon eclipsed it). The new phrase was a further condensing of the earlier forms, apparently conceived by Recharge in an IRC-related search for a band name.<ref>The original post</ref> Immediately thereafter a song titled "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" was recorded by Brian Kilby and appeared on Radio Free Cybertron.<ref>The song in mp3 format (archived copy)</ref> Being brief, easily understood by most fans, and amusing, "TRUKK NOT MUNKY" quickly became the go-to sarcastic reply.
Since the Beast Era has ended, the term's usage has been generalized to indicate knee-jerk reactionary complaints of a "it's not what we had before (even if we did) so it's bad" nature.
Of course, the whole point is rendered moot when you realize that Optimus Primal's alternate mode is actually an ape, specifically a gorilla, not a monkey.<ref>Generation 1 Optimus Prime never turned into a Mack truck, either.</ref> (This has been understood by the humorous users of the term all along, and adds approximately 34.5% of the snide.)
In the years since, Optimus Primal has received multiple toys where he does, in fact, have a truck (or similar vehicle) for an alternate mode.