# The Best 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. ## Origin 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 texture[2]. The post spread rapidly on Tumblr, collecting over 141,000 notes within roughly a year[2]. 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 humor[2]. - **Platform:** Tumblr - **Creator:** thatsbelievable (Tumblr page, original poster) - **Date:** 2020 ## Overview The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 is 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 zookeeper[2]. 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 newspaper[2]. ## 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 year[2]. 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 months[2]. 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 upvotes[2]. 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 months[2]. On May 18th, 2021, Tumblr user pillsburries shared their own comic version, which collected over 3,300 notes in five months[2]. 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. ## How to Use The meme works in a few ways: - **Share the original image** as a standalone joke, typically in contexts where absurdist or vintage-style humor fits the mood. - **Recreate the joke in a new medium.** Many fans have drawn comics, animated shorts, or Doge edits that act out the scene. The format is: setup question, innocent answer, gorilla reveal, then implied violence. - **Reference the bracketed punchline.** The phrase "[Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]" sometimes appears on its own as a reaction or punchline in comment threads when someone wants to imply chaotic off-screen action. - **Riff on the fake-historical framing.** Some users create their own "Best [X] Joke of [Year]" variants, applying the same aged-newspaper aesthetic to other absurd premises. ## Fun Facts - The Tumblr page thatsbelievable specializes in fake vintage media clips, making the gorilla joke one entry in a larger catalog of faux-historical comedy[2]. - The joke's structure (setup, innocent response, violent twist delivered through bracketed stage direction) mirrors a style common in absurdist Tumblr humor of the late 2010s and early 2020s. - The /r/dogelore Doge version outperformed the /r/1800HavingFun post by nearly 3x in upvotes, showing how remixing a joke into an existing meme format can amplify its reach[2]. - Despite being titled "The Best Gorilla Joke of 1897," no gorilla jokes from 1897 are known to exist in any newspaper archive[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### 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]. ## References 1. [List of prematurely reported obituaries]() 2. [The Best Gorilla Joke Of 1897 - Know Your Meme]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-best-gorilla-joke-of-1897 Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library