--- title: John Boehner's Toy Monkey is a Kindred Spirit description: The second most photographed object in John Boehner's office, after the House Speaker himself, is a wind-up monkey that sits on his desk, crashes cymbals on command and, according to his staffers, speaks volumes about his work. canonical: https://time.com/3181864/john-boehner-monkey/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-26T16:58:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:51:37.153Z article:section: Politics og:title: John Boehner's Toy Monkey is a Kindred Spirit og:description: The second most photographed object in John Boehner's office, after the House Speaker himself, is a wind-up monkey that sits on his desk, crashes cymbals on command and, according to his staffers, speaks volumes about his work. og:url: https://time.com/3181864/john-boehner-monkey/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9178cfb79518d71/6986a0fecd804d4c31ccc821/boehner-monkey.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: boehner-monkey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Boehner's Toy Monkey is a Kindred Spirit twitter:description: The second most photographed object in John Boehner's office, after the House Speaker himself, is a wind-up monkey that sits on his desk, crashes cymbals on command and, according to his staffers, speaks volumes about his work. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9178cfb79518d71/6986a0fecd804d4c31ccc821/boehner-monkey.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # WATCH: John Boehner Has Found His Kindred Spirit ... in a Monkey  by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Aug 26, 2014 4:58 PM CUT   by [Dan Kedmey](/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Aug 26, 2014 4:58 PM CUT The second most photographed object in John Boehner’s office — after the House Speaker himself — is a wind-up monkey that sits on his desk, crashes cymbals on command and, [according](http://www.speaker.gov/video/monkey-room "undefined") to his staffers, speaks volumes about his work. Boehner’s staff gave the gift as a “token of appreciation” and a subtle reminder to their boss to avoid comparing himself to a wind-up toy, as he did in 2011 when he was discussing the strains of his hectic work schedule. The monkey has since [appeared](http://www.speaker.gov/video/monkey-room "undefined") in at least 29 photos with the speaker and various visitors. On Tuesday, his staffers featured it in a YouTube video in which Boehner points at the toy monkey in action and says, “That’s what I do all day,” to a group of young girls getting a crash course in politics. “They wind me up about every 15 minutes,” he adds. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3181864/john-boehner-monkey/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3181864/john-boehner-monkey/"},"headline":"WATCH: John Boehner Has Found His Kindred Spirit ... in a Monkey","datePublished":"2014-08-26T16:58:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:51:37.153Z","description":"'That's what I do all day!'","url":"https://time.com/3181864/john-boehner-monkey/","keywords":["Congress","republicans"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9178cfb79518d71/6986a0fecd804d4c31ccc821/boehner-monkey.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb9178cfb79518d71/6986a0fecd804d4c31ccc821/boehner-monkey.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"boehner-monkey","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3181864/john-boehner-monkey/","name":"WATCH: John Boehner Has Found His Kindred Spirit ... in a Monkey"}}]}] ```