I think Gorillas have a strong, respectable look. They’re cool. Chimps, on the other hand, look like murderous schemers.
They look like what they are, just like you do. Chimps are far more aggressive than the great apes, however, and movies/TV have done a disservice to humans by portraying them as cute, cuddly, diaper-wearing child substitutes. A chimp that is pissed off is a serious foe that will fuck you up.
At least we have the decency to wear proper fur. What is with you sapiens walking around with your naked pinkness. Gross!
Stranger
They can tear your arm off, literally. They aren’t creepy, just dangerous.
I find most primates - monkeys, chimps, etc. - quite creepy or unpleasant. Just a “knowing, malicious” vibe.
Bonobos can actually be pretty.
But, yes, generally I find them creepy like I find a clown creepy.
I don’t find them creepy. I like them just like gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. I see them all as our closest relatives, somehow similar to our (common) ancestors, and as thus find them fascinating. Of course I have respect and know that they could smash you into pulp.
I don’t think they look creepy. I thought Washoe was pretty awesome for instance. But I learned not too long ago that they will kill and eat monkeys. Not cool, chimps…not cool. chimpanzees eat monkeys - Google Search
Only if they tuck my tag in.
How about humans?
We’re also primates; we pride ourselves (accurately or not) on “knowing”; and some of us are certainly malicious.
I think chimps look kind of neat. I doubt they think all that much of what I look like, though.
Some people do that too.
I don’t think they’re creepy, but then again, they’re not meant to be pets either.
My personal favorite non-human primate is the proboscis monkey. Now, THOSE are some weird-looking creatures. They’re actually a lot smaller than they appear in photographs.
Yup.
ETA: If you are a guy, your arm if you’re lucky. I understand the scrotum is a favourite target of chimps.
I heard they like to eat faces off as well.
This documentary is great although a bit disturbing: killer chimpanzee documentary - Bing video
Look creepy? No. Are creepy? Yes.
the horror!
Chimps ARE great apes. So are humans. All apes except gibbons are great apes.
And I agree with Ulfreda. They’re dangerous, but not creepy.
No, but the hell if I’d hang out with one. Only takes a couple stories of someone getting their face ripped off and I’m out.
What I find creepy are the zillions of movies and internet memes where they’re dressed up like babies or little children or trained to behave in cutesey clownlike ways. I don’t find them cute.
This, a thousand times this. I don’t mind a chimp just being a chimp, as any other creature would be itself (although I would never go near one). It’s when people go full-bore Uncanny Valley on them, fawning over them and imagining that they hare human infants or children, that I get seriously squicked out.
They are replacing the reality of the chimp with a fantasy in their minds, and it will lead to trouble. We can sort of get away with this with dogs, and to a lesser extent cats, because dogs and cats have lived with us for thousands of years, and we’ve adapted to each other, but even then people get bitten and scratched every day. But chimps? No way.