BANKSY // Laugh Now But One Day We’ll Be In Charge, 2008

  • Banksy’s 2008 Laugh Now monkey declares future uprising, rebellion theme through humour.
    Banksy, Laugh Now But One Day We’ll Be In Charge, 2008.
    Spray-paint on found steel. Unique. Original work missing. Dimensions unknown.
    © Banksy.
    Laugh Now But One Day We’ll Be In Charge (2008) features one of Banksy’s most iconic motifs: the monkey. Spray-painted on a raw, industrial sheet of found steel, the work shows a solitary chimpanzee wearing a sandwich board that reads the now-famous phrase. The steel’s distressed surface and rust patches add to the gritty urban feel, enhancing the tension between humour and rebellion that defines so much of Banksy’s practice.
     
    The message is simple, bleak, and oddly empowering. In typical Banksy fashion, the monkey, often a symbol for the overlooked, the mocked, or the subjugated, becomes the unlikely harbinger of revolution. The phrase “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge” functions as both a threat and a prophecy, mocking societal hierarchies while suggesting that the tables may one day turn.
     
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  • “Some people represent authority without ever possessing any of their own.”

    – Banksy

    Laugh Now But One Day We’ll Be In Charge (2008) features one of Banksy’s most recognisable motifs: the monkey. Spray-painted on a sheet of found steel, the image shows a chimpanzee wearing a sandwich board with the now-famous phrase. The distressed surface adds an urban, industrial feel that reinforces the tension between humour and defiance.
     
    The work turns the monkey, often a stand-in for society’s outcasts, into a messenger of rebellion. The phrase functions both as satire and prophecy, mocking authority while suggesting that power dynamics may one day be overturned. It is this mix of wit and menace that has made Laugh Now one of Banksy’s most enduring creations.
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