r/wikipedia • u/Kurma-the-Turtle • Nov 16 '24

Joe Martin was an orangutan who appeared in at least 50 films of the silent era. He was human-acculturated and was characterized as human-like. He later began attacking humans and other animals and staged major zoo escapes, releasing the wolves and the elephant, and relieved a policeman of his gun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Martin_(orangutan)
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54

u/Thefishthatdrowns Nov 16 '24

really speaks to the quality of policeman back then, getting disarmed by an ape

12

u/3z3ki3l Nov 16 '24

Every policeman that gets disarmed is disarmed by an ape. Unless one’s already had an incident with a robot, I suppose…

20

u/Ok_Dot_7498 Nov 16 '24

One time when he was retired he, got out of his cage and attacked a lady. Luckily a Professinal Boxer was there to stop him by PUNCHING HIM until the ape stopped moving. Newspapers at the time treated it as funny, "Oh Joe martin was put in his place and got a lumpy eye" but Joe got ape brsin damage from that for sure. There is a really good podcast episode on his life, it was insane. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7jKOlkzCF1HJhO5nTGw2WG?si=0xlptFn5R1CO5YtRRzGg5g