Laugh Now Banksy

Banksy, Laugh Now, unsigned screenprint edition of 600, 2003

Laugh Now, an unsigned screenprint of 600 is a witty stencil from Banksy which actually first appeared in a Brighton nightclub in 2002 before going on to be released as a print the following year. It is a classic Banksy stencil, dripping with satire and dark humour, depicting a monkey, standing upright, wearing a sandwich board (normally associated with preachesr and bringers of doom!) which reads: ‘Laugh Now But One Day We’ll Be In Charge.’ Whether this piece is Banksy’s way of criticising man for his enslavement of his primate cousins or whether it serves as a warning of an impending revolution, we may never know, but it certainly chimes with the Planet of the Apes series of films that chart the rise and evolution of our primate ancestors, as they fight for their rights and respect in a human-dominated world.