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Laugh Now depicts a despondent monkey wearing a sandwich board that suggests he is persecuted or enslaved. The monkey, like the rat, is one of Banksy’s most commonly utilised animal characters to satirise human nature. Laugh Now could be a critique of how humans have treated animals, particularly our primate cousins, whether through poaching or capture for entertainment or medical study. The foreboding wording on the board is both mocking and scary, implying that the character is planning an uprising, as if Banksy were forewarning of an impending revolution. It’s also a lighthearted spin on Darwin’s theory of evolution.
