Orangutans in popular culture  

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Orangutans, two species of great apes indigenous to Indonesia and Malaysia, have been the subject of multiple popular culture references.

Contents

Famous orangutans

  • Ah Meng (1960–2008), Sumatran Orangutan of Singapore
  • Ken Allen (1971–2000) was a Bornean orangutan at the San Diego Zoo known for his escape artistry. He unscrewed bolts with his fingers, reached around things and climbed steep walls to find temporary freedom. When keepers discovered and closed one of his escape routes he would find another. At least once he was found out among zoo visitors and was led by the hand to a keeper by a visitor. Ken Allen died in 2000.

Orangutans as villains

An early example of orangutans in English literature is one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous stories, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which featured a murderous orangutan. Orangutans also play a prominent role in Poe's short story Hop-Frog. Later examples offer a more civilized ape: in 1967, Walt Disney produced a film version of The Jungle Book, and added an orangutan King Louie who wanted the power of "man's red fire". The next year, Planet of the Apes featured orangutan administrators and politicians ruling over the other apes and treating humans as vermin. Primarily,this is represented by Dr. Zaius, keeper of the faith, who knows the real truth about ape society and mankind's past.

Orangutans as pets and guardians

The flexible form of the orangutan is put to use, as in Terry Pratchett's Discworld with The Librarian, a human shapechanged into an orangutan. Orangutans become pets (as in Every Which Way but Loose), friends (as in Dunston Checks In) and even guardians, as in Nickelodeon's The Wild Thornberrys, where they raise a human child.

Use in entertainment

Young captive orangutans have been used in films, TV and advertising.

The Clint Eastwood films Every Which Way but Loose and Any Which Way You Can featured an orangutan character named Clyde. Clyde was played by different orangutans in each film. The second orangutan died shortly after the latter film was made. An assistant trainer admitted beating Clyde with a cane and ax handle, which was not illegal at the time.

The television soap opera Passions used an orangutan named Bam for the character of Precious, a nurse. Baby orangutans have also been used in television commercials for companies such as Ask.com, Capital One and Visa.

Entertainer Bobby Berosini used five orangutans in his Las Vegas act until he was videotaped beating the animals back stage. Animal rights group PETA publicized a videotape of the abuse and entered into a long series of lawsuits with Berosini who eventually was denied permission to keep these endangered species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Orangutans in specific works of fiction

Orangutans in videogames

  • In Donkey Kong 64 Lanky Kong is a Sumatran orangutan who uses his very long arms to good effect to reach otherwise out-of-bounds areas (in fact, there is a glitch in the game such that by very careful positioning of Lanky using the move he can open and enter doors that are supposed to be locked behind a keeper by touching them). A potion also enables him to do OrangStand, walking on his hands to climb steep slopes. He also appears in other related games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • In Metal Slug 3, an unnamed AI-controlled orangutan wearing diapers may appear to aid the player on killing zombies with a weapon similar to an UZI

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Orangutans in popular culture" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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