What about using the humerus as a lever for shredding the shoulder joint? Fold right humerus over behind victim’s back until right elbow touches left shoulder, then fold right humerus across chest in the same manner? Once you’ve sufficiently weakened the joint with a few ruptures/tears, could you use some part of the victim’s body (or your own) as a fulcrum near the victim’s shoulder, so that you could continue to use the victim’s humerus in the same motions to cause further tearing (think of how you pull a long framing nail partially out with a claw hammer, then use a chunk of 2x4 under the head of the hammer to enable you to finish pulling the nail out).
I vote that if ***you ***can’t tear off the leg of a raw chicken by hand personally, you should very much hesitate to suggest that a (non-supernatural) human could tear off a human arm.
I (accidentally) did this (the dislocation thing) to a friend in college, playing the (mucho stupid, macho stupid) game “Mercy”. I’ll never forget the very gross sensation, and yes, it felt just like the sound that they have in the movies when someone’s arm is torn off. Afterward, he told me he was a recurrent dislocator. Meaning that he had had prior injury and subsequent chronic instability.
Unfortunately, people get their fingers torn off at the middle joint all the time. Jimmy Fallon, Lindsay Lohan’s … it happens to people who aren’t famous too.
I’ve heard about these types of avulsions, and they do seem to be common, often happening when a ring gets caught like Fallon, though that doesn’t seem to be what happened to Lohan. But that is a large force being applied to a small area. An arm is dozens of times more massive than a finger.
To wit, world record deadlift at about 1100 lbs. That’s 550 lbs of tension force per hand. Due to the straps, a fair amount of that force is applied above the wrist. But still.
I’ve heard of instances where a chimp tore off a man’s balls. Doesn’t mean a human could do it though and I’m not sure how that would fit into your story.
A strong human could do most of the damage chimps are claimed to do. The difference is it’s not in our nature to do such things. Anyone psychotic enough to strive for that kind of damage would use a tool, as it’s easier.
A chimp doing that is topped out at max aggression, and is doing it for an evolutionary purpose. We simply don’t have that kind of desire… even though it’s definitely doable in theory.
I think that is true pound for pound, partly due to low body fat on chimps and partly due to muscle positioning optimized for some tasks (like grasping and climbing) and presumably subpar at others (like maybe throwing & punching?).
So I guess I’m not entirely sure that a chimp is necessarily stronger than a marine or a weightlifter. Certainly not substantially stronger than a very strong fictional character could be.
Anyway, I think it’s quite reasonable to have Zumbie’s human character rip off the testicle arms of his enemy (as proposed upthread). And I’ll bet he could throw them twice as far and twice as straight as a chimp. Very plausible.
Well Zumie’s character could be fascinated by weaknesses and joints and use a bit of mechanical aid to help him (or her) out. Creative use of a vice and a crowbar would make it possible to tear off an arm and to me that’s even creepier than doing it by hand.
I created a thread last year about a human vs chimp fight and all that nonsense, and after doing a bit of research, it seems you’re right - we have different ‘strengths’.
Chimps are highly optimised for what they need to do, as are we. Also, the almost mythical pulling strength of a chimp is highly exaggerated, even if it is stronger than most adult human males.
A chimp on full aggressor mode will be capable of doing things most humans won’t expect or defend against, such as protecting their genitals and face from being torn, or their fingers from being bitten off.
However, it’s somewhat comforting to know the chimp won’t be expecting a foot stomp to the head either…
When you add guys like Brian Shaw or Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson into the equation - well, providing their aggression and will to win matches the chimps, then the huge weight and height advantage is going to count.
Anyway… back to the original question; Those guys wouldn’t be able to tear off the arm from a healthy human - at least not without killing them first, and giving themselves the afternoon off to get stuck in and play twisties…
Maybe… Like standing on top of a person on the ground, and yanking up really, freakin’ hard in an explosive deadlifting/olympic weightlifting style pull…
Probably would have to have a huge size advantage to pull it off though.
