Cranky Kong

*This article uses material from the “Cranky Kong” article on the Donkey Kong Wiki at FANDOM is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.*

**Cranky Kong**, also known as **DK SR.** or **Donkey Kong I** or **Donkey Kong the First**, is a character from the *Donkey Kong* games.

Donkey Kong's aptly named grandfather. Cranky Kong spends his days sitting on his front porch, dispensing sarcastic advice to passersby, and bemoaning the loss of the good ol' days of 8-bit gaming. He was married to Wrinkly Kong before she gave up the ghost.

In the AWA fics, Cranky is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

In his youth, Cranky was a muscular and unkempt Kong. Already old, Cranky has a white beard, glasses, and wears a reddish gray shirt. At the end of the third game, Cranky wears a white karate  and black belt. In *Donkey Kong 64*, Cranky wears a scientist's coat and head mirror.

## **Personality**

Cranky is a fourth-wall breaking and constantly complaining and rambling grandfather of Donkey Kong.

## **Trivia**

* Real-life Gorillas age 2-3 times faster than humans becoming fully grown around ages 11–15 and reach their elderly years at ages 35–45, and Trudy the oldest gorilla lived to be 61 years old, an age well above the common gorilla's maximum age. Meaning Cranky would comparatively be around those ages, making him significantly older than Mario's parents including Mario himself (Mario's parents would at least be relatively younger than Cranky in human years) explaining the "missing generation" and huge age difference between Cranky and the current day Donkey Kong. Mario would also be younger than DK JR.. It's likely eating the magical Banana Hoard is keeping Cranky alive and have a healthy lifespan beyond the average gorilla.
	+ Mario is Age: 24 and regularly eats 1-Up Mushrooms that make him *physically* age slowly; while current Donkey Kong is around Age: 11-20, in *Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze* he is celebrating his 20th birthday as *Donkey Kong Country* came out in 1994.
* Cranky Kong (as himself and his younger self) in video games and other media has showcased many composite feats.
* *Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Country Returns* revealed that Cranky affectionately raised DK "like a son" (Wrinkly didn't raise him due to DK and Wrinkly's somewhat weak relationship) however his in-game dialogue and usual manner of speech to him shows what their relationship is, that of a young boy and his old ranting grandfather.
* Cranky Kong used to be friends with K. Rool.
* Cranky, Wrinkly Kong, DK Jr., and Diddy Kong have conjoined eyes whereas modern Donkey Kong doesn't.
* There has been some confusion and controversy over the years as to whether the current Donkey Kong is the Grandson or Son of Cranky, Cranky Kong has been referred to as Donkey Kong's grandfather in the original *DKC* games and *DKL*, but it's quite implied that Rare didn't completely care to keep the storylines perfectly straight, the Rare scribes editor when asked about the Kong's relations/species says "he just works with the material he is given" and Rare Employees Roderick Arbuthnot/Leigh Loveday seem to have misinterpreted the relationship since they once tried to retcon this a few months before the release of *DK64*in a 1999 Q&A, however not only is the claim invalid since the Rare scribes editor is merely a staff member rather than the actual game developers, but also Rare left Nintendo with control over the DK characters, the claim was conjecture, it was never clear, definitive, nor conclusive to begin with since it's prefaced with the phrase *"As far as I know"*, then the theoretical phrase *"which does indeed make him*, and ending it jokingly telling people that if they see evidence that contradicts his statement to *"just cover your eyes and hum loudly until it goes away"*, heavily implying that a few members of Rare were either confused/didn't know the relationships, or had conflicting ideas. Keep in mind that *DKC3* and *DK64* were developed by a different team at Rare as opposed to the original team that made *DKC* and *DKC2* (later on made the N64 game series *Banjo-Kazooie*) which can lead to conflicting statements. Nintendo likely believed that the new Donkey Kong's design was too different than that of Jr. (different head shape, face, and fur color) (if anything Jr. would look more like *classic DK* (except incredibly shorter) rather than modern DK), seeing Junior as a relative arcade icon and viable/relevant property, and with the debut of Baby Donkey Kong they took the opportunity to disprove that they are the same character. With Nintendo and Retro releasing *DKCR*and *DKCTF*, they support the original idea, that being Jr. and Donkey Kong are separate characters, hence forth the current Donkey Kong is Donkey Kong III, Jr.'s son, and Cranky's grandson with the releases of the *DKC* GBC/GBA remakes, *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*, *Donkey Kong Country Returns*, and *Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze* all supporting this.
	+ In the 2017's *Playing With Super Power: Nintendo Super NES Classics eGuide, Super Mario Kart 16 Bits Tab*, an official book by Prima Games, Prima confirmed the section about the DK Lineage on page 112 is the true official familial interpretation further establishing Jr. as Cranky's son and the father of the modern Donkey Kong, whereas the section on page 192 with the "Donkey Kong Jr., all grown up" statement according to Prima is meant to be written as a metaphor of the older *Donkey Kong*games to the more modernized *Donkey Kong Country* games (the gameplay mechanics and strategy of the *Donkey Kong Jr.* arcade game heavily inspired *DKC* and it's sequels) rather than be taken as literal; it references how Junior had the playable Kong role instead of DK himself, and said role was now "all grown up" (aka ***modernized***) and redesigned with new moves.
		- Gregg Mayles on Twitter in 2017 confirmed that modern DK is Cranky's grandson, and the statement in *DK64* was a mistake and an outlier not to be construed as literal, since "son" is short for "grandson" and is used by older people towards any younger males as a form of endearment. It should also be noted that there is no in-game text nor manual/instruction booklet that ever explicitly states that DK is Jr., debunking the fan misconception.
* Miyamoto really likes Cranky and the lore behind him being the original Donkey Kong.
	+ The old DK's improper social conduct evolved into Cranky's grouchy demeanor and having previous anti-human prejudices.
* Donkey Kong Jr., Cranky Kong, and Wrinkly Kong are the only known Kongs who know how to do math correctly.
* Cranky's beard may be a reference to silver-back gorillas.