Rendered in Banksy’s signature monochrome stenciled style, Laugh Now features a slump-shouldered, forlorn-looking monkey wearing a sandwich board bearing the foreboding pledge “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge”. Though a seemingly comic image at first glance, the social critique behind this image quickly becomes apparent. The chimpanzee is one of Banksy’s most frequently used motifs, alongside the rat, often paired with signage imparting pithy remarks that provide pejorative commentaries on a range of socio-political aspects of contemporary life. These animals often serve a didactic role in Banksy’s works, and the monkey in Laugh Now is no exception.

The chimpanzee first appeared in Banksy’s oeuvre in 2002 when the artist was commissioned by a nightclub in Brighton to create a six-meter long spray-painted mural of the figure repeated ten times, making it unusual for the artist whose works are usually created foremost for public spaces. It was from this work that subsequent versions of Laugh Now were created. Versions of this work have been exhibited widely; indeed, the current work was included in an exhibition titled War, Capitalism, and Liberty hosted by the Palazzo Cipolla in Rome in 2016. Consequently, it has become one of Banksy’s most iconic and widely disseminated images, making headlines in 2008 when the original artwork successfully sold at auction, breaking the record for the artist at the time.