Yesterday evening, I was randomly reminded of this post from December 2019: just BTV in South Africa (officially, anyway).
It was a truly odd thing to read back then (as I think I ably explained at the time), but since other world events [gestures wildly around] since that day, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. Because:
“When was the last time you touched a monkey?”
was a really creepy and wholly off-putting chat-up line 2½ years ago. Now, it sounds like more of a basic risk assessment. And weirdly, because of that, also a great deal more reasonable question to ask.
In context, of course.
So it’s not that I’m suggesting you approach anyone anywhere and question them about their recent history regarding simian contact, but if the topic of monkeys was to come up in an otherwise normal conversation, then just checking out how recently they had touched a monkey could assist you in making some smart decisions about a) whether the conversation should continue further, and b) if so, at what sort of distance.
So yes, there are probably more potential positives – one – to this question now than there were back in December 2019, but I would definitely still refrain from even considering this as any sort of ice breaker in a social setting.