[TChris]

Well I agree that is hooey, but you'd need an infinite number of monkeys and/or time to demonstrate it. I think that is why God gave us the power to reason, instead of a calculator.

...and typewriters that never malfunction.

...and ribbons that never run out of ink.

...and monkeys that live forever.

...and monkeys that feel like typing instead of doing what monkeys do.

...and you count each individual "Shakesperean" word, not really expecting them to be in order.

...etc.

It's a platitude spoken as a truism.

[SampleMan]

Well, of course with enough time a monkey would randomly fix the broken typewriter, change the ink ribbons, and create more monkeys to do the same.

Come on, its all in the math ;-)

[BlueMondaySkipper]

It's a platitude spoken as a truism.

No, it's an analogy that you are taking literally and it is perfectly true. An infinite iteration of chance would indeed accomplish this.