This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
Many of the most iconic characters in children's stories are talking animals.
What's up, Jack?
I thought I saw a pudding.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming just keep swimming oh.
The wonderful thing about figures is because they're wonderful things, the tops are made of the river the bottoms are made of.
As children, we love to imagine that animals think as we think and do as we do.
We continue to love animal videos as we get older.
If you need evidence, look at YouTube.
Maybe youre responsible for one of the 22 million views of this video.
Just like to open wide, sir.
One monkey lies flat with its mouth wide open.
A second monkey hunches over the first, peering into its mouth.
Its pretty typical stuff for monkeys.
Animals groom each other all the time.
But this video went viral for one very clear reason, the human voiceovers.
You going anywhere nice on your holidays?
Yeah, yeah.
Don't try and talk when my hands are in your mouth, sir.