Monkey drummer is a short film by music video director Chris Cunningham. Chris is well-known for his work with Björk, Aphex Twin, and Madonna, for whom he directed the video for Frozen. It was recently shown at the Edinburgh College of Art along with Flex as part of the Edinburgh Festival. It was a free show, and ran until 26 August 2001.

After the nightmarish Flex, the monkey drummer serves as comic relief. The film consists of an eight-limbed robot, reminiscent of the Japanese piano playing robots shown on any AI related documentary, playing a set of drums. However, this robot has the head of a toy Monkey, and is playing an Aphex Twin track. Anyone who knows his work will not be surprised that six arms, two legs, an automatic cymbal and a drumming groin are needed to play the song live. The arms and legs are, however, human, and clever special effects have been used to make them appear to be attached to the robotic arms roughly where a pair of shorts or a t-shirt end. I found it a bit disappointing that there isn't a real six-armed robotic drumming monkey, but never mind. The video is about five minutes long, and all the monkey does is drum and spin its head a bit in a comical manner. It no doubt started life as an idea for a music video with no music to go with it in Chris Cunningham's warped mind.

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