Urban legend?
http://www.throwcase.com/2014/12/21/that-five-monkeys-and-a-banana-story-is-rubbish/
That criticism of the original story doth protest too much, methinks, particularly with regards to how the original experiment has ‘nothing at all’ the same as the modern tale. In fact, the male monkeys, when placed with a naive newcomer, would actually use physical force to deter the newcomers from the unique object. Female monkeys would sit back and observe newcomers manipulating the object and allow themselves to unlearn their previous behavior.
So there is a seed of truth to the idea that a learned behavior can be transferred to others in this way. In fact, there is an example from my time in college that I find particularly enlightening of herd mentality: If just one student thinks that a classroom door is locked, they will wait outside of it and in many cases other students will gather with them in the shared assumption that the door is locked. This was particularly humorous when some students had already entered the classroom before the student thinking the door was locked, and particularly when class was about to begin and the teacher had to ask everyone what they were doing standing outside like a bunch of sheep.
JEDIT: I am also baffled by the debunker’s vitriol towards TED talks.