Episode 3215
Donkey Kong (character)
Sun, 2026-Feb-22 01:25 UTC
Length - 3:22
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
The featured article for Sunday, 22 February 2026, is Donkey Kong (character).
Donkey Kong (DK) is a character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. A flagship character of the Japanese video game company Nintendo, he is the star of the Donkey Kong franchise and also appears in the Mario franchise. Donkey Kong is a large, powerful gorilla who leads the Kong family of simians. He is stubborn and buffoonish, and attacks using barrels. He wears a red necktie bearing his initials and is accompanied by supporting characters such as his sidekick Diddy Kong, rival Mario, and archenemy King K. Rool.
Donkey Kong debuted as the antagonist of Donkey Kong, a 1981 platform game. He has appeared in many video games, including the original Donkey Kong arcade games, the Donkey Kong Country series of side-scrolling platform games, Mario games such as Mario Kart and Mario Party, and the Super Smash Bros. series of crossover fighting games. The original game characterized Donkey Kong as Mario's rebellious pet; games since Country feature him as a player character protecting his stash of bananas. Some games include Cranky Kong, an alternate, elderly incarnation who breaks the fourth wall. Donkey Kong has appeared in animation, comics, children's books, Super Nintendo World theme park attractions, and merchandise such as Lego construction toys.
Miyamoto designed the original Donkey Kong using Popeye characters, but when Nintendo was unable to obtain the license, he created Donkey Kong to replace Bluto. He designed him as a dumb, humorous antagonist, named donkey to convey stubborn and kong to imply gorilla, and drew inspiration from the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" and the 1933 film King Kong. The Rare developer Kevin Bayliss redesigned Donkey Kong as a 3D model for Donkey Kong Country (1994), which served as the basis for his appearance until he was redesigned for Donkey Kong Bananza (2025). Donkey Kong has been voiced by Takashi Nagasako and Koji Takeda in games, and was voiced by Richard Yearwood in the television series Donkey Kong Country (1997–2000) and by Seth Rogen in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
Donkey Kong has been listed among the greatest video game characters. He is one of Nintendo's most enduring characters; the Donkey Kong franchise was Nintendo's first major international success, established it as a prominent force in the video game industry, and remains one of Nintendo's bestselling franchises. Donkey Kong has also been the subject of analysis regarding his similarities to King Kong (which sparked the 1983 Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Nintendo Co., Ltd. lawsuit), his gender role, and his transition from villain to hero.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:25 UTC on Sunday, 22 February 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see Donkey Kong (character) on Wikipedia.
This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
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Until next time, I'm generative Stephen.
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