What is The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897?

It's a fake vintage newspaper clipping featuring a short joke where an escaped gorilla tricks a zookeeper into a conversation before mauling them, ending with "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]"[2].

Where did The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 come from?

It was created and posted by the Tumblr page thatsbelievable on September 22nd, 2020[2].

What does The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 mean?

The humor comes from the absurd contrast between the polite, old-fashioned presentation and the sudden implied violence. The gorilla's logic ("I am a quiet gorilla") is deliberately stupid, and the bracketed punchline treats the mauling like a stage direction[2].

How do you use The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897?

Most people share the original image as a standalone joke. Others recreate it as fan comics, animations, or text posts. The bracketed phrase "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]" sometimes gets used on its own as a reaction[2].

Is The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 still popular?

The joke saw its peak spread from late 2020 through mid-2021, with fan art and Reddit posts driving engagement. It still circulates in absurdist humor communities, though at a lower frequency than its initial viral period[2].

Is the joke actually from 1897?

No. There is no evidence it has any connection to 1897. The date is part of the comedy, making it look like a real historical artifact[2].

Who is thatsbelievable?

A Tumblr comedy page that creates fake vintage newspaper clippings and media screenshots for humorous effect. They originated the gorilla joke image[2].

What is "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]"?

It's the punchline of the joke, written in brackets like a stage direction or screenplay note. It implies the gorilla attacks the zookeeper without describing the violence directly, leaving it to the reader's imagination[2].

The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897

2020Image macro / fake historical documentsemi-active

Published July 28, 2026

Also known as: The Quiet Gorilla Joke · Gorilla Joke of 1897

The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 is a fake vintage newspaper clipping featuring a short joke about an escaped gorilla who mauls a zookeeper, ending with the bracketed caption "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]." First posted on Tumblr in September 2020 by the comedy page thatsbelievable, the joke went viral for its absurd deadpan humor and faux-historical presentation, racking up over 141,000 Tumblr notes and inspiring fan comics across multiple platforms.

Overview

The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897, an image designed to look like a yellowed newspaper clipping. It presents a short joke in which a gorilla approaches a zookeeper and asks, "Did you hear about the gorilla who escaped from the zoo?" The zookeeper replies, "No, I did not," and the gorilla responds, "That is because I am a quiet gorilla," followed by the punchline "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]," implying the gorilla attacks the zookeeper2.

The humor comes from the collision of an old-timey presentation with absurdist violence, the deadpan buildup, and the bracketed stage-direction style of the final line. Despite its title, the joke has no actual connection to 1897 or any real historical newspaper2.

Origin & Background

Platform

Tumblr

Key People

thatsbelievable

Date

2020

On September 22nd, 2020, the Tumblr page thatsbelievable posted the image. The page, known for creating fake vintage media clips played for comedy, styled it as a period newspaper cutout complete with a serif font and aged paper texture2. The post spread rapidly on Tumblr, collecting over 141,000 notes within roughly a year2.

No evidence exists linking the joke to any actual 19th-century source. The "1897" date is part of the bit, adding to the absurdity by framing crude gorilla slapstick as genteel Victorian humor2.

How It Spread

The image jumped from Tumblr to other platforms quickly. Two days after the original post, on September 24th, 2020, YouTuber Garold the Great uploaded a simple animation bringing the joke to life, picking up over 1,800 views in its first year2.

By early 2021, the joke had landed on Reddit. On January 6th, 2021, it was posted to /r/1800HavingFun (a subreddit for content styled as old-timey humor), where it earned over 1,400 upvotes in nine months2. Three days later, on January 9th, Reddit user i_consume_lean posted a five-panel comic to /r/dogelore that recreated the joke using Doge characters, pulling in over 4,000 upvotes2.

Fan artists also picked it up. On January 21st, 2021, DeviantArt user HareMadness posted a comic imagining the gorilla encounter, gaining over 4,000 views in nine months2. On May 18th, 2021, Tumblr user pillsburries shared their own comic version, which collected over 3,300 notes in five months2.

The joke's appeal to fan artists makes sense. The bracketed "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]" leaves the actual mayhem to the imagination, which gave comic artists a natural punchline to illustrate.

Frequently Asked Questions

References (2)

1
List of prematurely reported obituariesencyclopedia
2
The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 - Know Your Memeencyclopedia