Oliver the Humanzee

Oliver is a world famous chimpanzee who was believed to be the "missing link" in the chain of evolution. The (slightly altered)telling of his life story is one of the most popular stories from Karl Pilkington.

Origin

Originally told on the 22nd show of the second series on Xfm, Ricky and Steve could not believe what they were hearing when Karl told them about a chimp(referred to as a monkey) who; went mysteriously bald, lived in a house with a zoo-keeper and his wife, smoked cigarettes, drank tea(as well as brandy at night), and would eventually "try it on" with the zoo-keeper's wife. This chimp would eventually be named as "Ollie". Karl's telling of Ollie's life became very popular and would inspire Ricky, Steve and Karl to do a regular feature based on monkeys or chimps, entitled 'Chimpanzee That' later changed to 'Monkey News'.

Oliver's Life

Despite Ricky and Steve apparently not recognising the name, Oliver was a very well known chimp, who was allegedly displaying human traits and believed to be a "Humanzee" meaning the missing link in the evolutionary chain. Despite science debunking this theory in Oliver's later life, he was tested on, sold, and showed off to the public in his earlier years. Ricky and Steve showed a certain amount of knowledge about Ollie in later shows, but still didn't believe Karl's story.

Documentary

A documentary was aired on Channel 5 based on Oliver's life, which was discussed on the Xfm show(Karl phoned in as he was absent due to "illness"). Ricky remained adamant that the show had no scientific facts that proved Ollie was a humanzee but it did have many candid interviews and images supporting Karl's claims that Ollie was attracted to human women and smoked cigarettes.

Retelling

The story has been retold, most notably on the Guardian Podcast, where Karl also added to the story, saying that the zoo-keeper became friend with Ollie as they were in a quite, unpopular zoo, and Ollie appeared lonely.

Refrences

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee - Humanzee on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_%28chimpanzee%29 - Oliver on Wikipedia

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6NkRUbI38 - First of six parts of Channel 5 documentary on YouTube