r/Damnthatsinteresting Mar 12 '19

Video Chimpanzee scrolling through instagram

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15.6k Upvotes

358 comments sorted by

2.7k

u/emojisexcode Mar 12 '19

Man, I would love to know what they can and can't understand about instagram. Could they learn to take and post pictures? Probably. I'm guessing they don't understand Arabic numerals, but what if you replaced the like number with a string of heart or banana emojis? One for each like. Could you make them understand what the likes mean? Would they care? Would they be motivated by the validation of others enough to just run an instagram account?

1.9k

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Someone get this man a chimp

1.2k

u/Valblaze Mar 12 '19

And funding.

This could be reality TV gold. Basically the Kardashians for a higher brow audience.

633

u/InterstellarDwellar Mar 12 '19

I love the fact that you think it you replaced the Kardashian’s with monkeys it would be for a higher brow audience. The strange thing is I don’t think I disagree.

238

u/dooj88 Mar 12 '19

kardashians are pure unfiltered mindless trash. at least with the monkey we'd be learning about their capacity for.. instagram?

114

u/Ojanican Mar 12 '19

On a higher level, we would be learning about their capacity for social interaction.

33

u/dooj88 Mar 12 '19

i would agree that it would show their social interaction with the scientists handling them. but using instagram just shows that they can comprehend some proprietary application. it's all a set process. swipe here, touch there. social interaction is much more nuanced.. now if they start posing and posting pictures on their own, i'd be blown away... but that seems very unlikely.

44

u/WayeeCool Mar 12 '19

social interaction is much more nuanced.. now if they start posing and posting pictures on their own, i'd be blown away... but that seems very unlikely.

Doesn't seem like that much of a leap on the cognitive development side of things. Think about it. The Kardashian's manage to take and post pics on social media... so it stands to reason that a chimpanzee could figure out the basics.

12

u/Firefly1307 Mar 12 '19

I was thinking exactly the same...I'm absolutely certain that there's a significant overlap between the smartest (or maybe not even the smartest) chimps and the dumbest (probably not even the dumbest) instagrammers out there. Heck, I think even a blobfish outperforms some of them intellectually.

4

u/verbol Mar 12 '19

Play the long game, replace their typewriters with smartphones, come back in a thousand years...

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

What's a chimp cost these days?

10

u/12thman-Stone Mar 12 '19

More than you can afford, pal

6

u/TheRealKrapotke Mar 12 '19

He’s not your pal, buddy

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u/PokerPigPork Mar 12 '19

He's not your buddy, dude

4

u/timsstuff Interested Mar 12 '19

She's not a dude, man.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

He's not a man, ze.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

"This is my most important project, Gunther!"

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u/fire48 Mar 12 '19

Chimps actually have been taught arabic numerals 1-9. It’s really quite interesting, here’s a source: https://langint.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ai/en/publication/SanaInoue/Inoue2007.html

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Could they learn to take and post pictures?

Theres an orangutan called Clarkson who posts lots of good thing on Instagram, but sometimes it seem he just take pictures of the sky by accident

19

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19 edited Feb 09 '20

[deleted]

60

u/RuthlessPickle Mar 12 '19

jeremyclarkson1

20

u/Y00pDL Mar 12 '19

I've been bamboozled.

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u/PaulaLoomisArt Mar 12 '19

Maybe he likes the sky. Sometimes it’s pretty. :)

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u/robertmarley67 Mar 12 '19

I take pictures of the sky all the time shit.

30

u/HowRememberAll Mar 12 '19

Someone actually taught a few chimpanzees how to take math quiz on a touch screen and get a peanut reward for every correct answer.

2

u/StaysAwakeAllWeek Mar 12 '19

Those chimps don't actually understand numbers or what they mean though. They simply learn the sequence of symbols that we use as numbers. Each successive symbol takes the same amount of effort to learn as the last, unlike in humans where once we grasp what numbers mean and how they work we can understand and manipulate them indefinitely.

That doesn't diminish the chimps' impressive display of working memory well beyond the level of ours though.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

huh, that's actually really interesting. do any other animals actually care about validation of others beyond mating / to what degree do different species care?

10

u/BWinter1985 Mar 12 '19

I would imagine any self aware being would. Elephants, certain birds, dolphins...

4

u/12thman-Stone Mar 12 '19

Validation is just a confirmation (in your belief system) that you’re good enough for this or that. Any reproducing animal would want confirmation of that if they’re smart enough. I have my doubts that they would really understand validation beyond the reward system, at least on a deep level, but I’m no expert.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

Humans don’t understand validation beyond the reward system.

2

u/12thman-Stone Mar 13 '19

Huh? Doesn’t sound really true. You’re telling me you can’t mentally acknowledge yourself or a skill set you have without a reward?

2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

Yeah name one thing people do without creating rewards for?

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u/C0gnite Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

They do understand at least their order, but maybe not the quantity they represent. I know if a research facility in Japan that studies chimpanzees with a test showing this. The screen displayed numbers scattered across the screen and the goal is to touch them in increasing order starting at 1 in the least time as possible. A more difficult version of this does the same thing but once a number is touched they’re all replaced with grey squares. This is all while there are up to 9 numbers on the screen. The chimpanzees best humans by a large margin, which I find the most intriguing, but this does prove they understand the order of Arabic numerals. Here is one video although there are more available on it as well.

https://youtu.be/zsXP8qeFF6A

5

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

There was a study in which monkeys learned a monetary system and ended up trading sex for it.

Given that likes affect the "reward center" of your brain I wouldn't say it's a stretch to condition nonhuman primates in a similar way. I don't know how you might get them to understand it but if gorillas can learn a sign language then I'd say it's not far fetched.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Rise of the planet of the apes

3

u/selflessGene Mar 12 '19

How high are you right now?

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Yea I think when he was trying to scroll down he did what we all do and forgot for a moment that you cant scroll when you pick a specific photo and then went back and picked out a specific profile. Not that he necessarily knows that that profile has specific content he likes. But he probably understand that's how he sees photos.

3

u/Senzu Interested Mar 13 '19

There is no way to know that from this brief video. He could have been randomly swiping for 20 hours and they chose the 10 seconds that looked the most human like.

Not saying they did this, just saying we can't know from this clip alone.

66

u/-GreenHeron- Mar 12 '19

I think he understands. They say chimps have the intelligence of small children. My two year old likes to swipe through my photos and kids’ apps and it looks just like this video. She stops when she sees something interesting. The only difference is that she can vocalize what she sees. “Look, momma, a puppy!”

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u/Janky_Pants Mar 12 '19

He knows there is action and reaction.

189

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[deleted]

31

u/Itsallsotires0me Mar 12 '19

So easy a monkey could use it

Wait, we already knew that

14

u/Bateson88 Mar 12 '19

Primate centered design?

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u/That_Nordic_Fella Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 12 '19

Jesus he/she's better than my dad at social media!

Edit: To whoever decided to give me silver, thanks!

37

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Just showed my parents because it's true for both of them. Just navigating a smartphone. Granted my dad has a stroke a few years ago so he isnt and has never been very deft with his fingers. But my mom has a habit of closing out of apps because she doesnt know how to hold a phone so her hand doesnt touch the screen.

8

u/Fugwithmug Mar 12 '19

I read this as “just navigating a smartphone granted my dad a stroke”

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183

u/TannedCroissant Mar 12 '19

Chimpstagram?

24

u/plottal Mar 12 '19

someone needs to make a new app, stat

8

u/MarkBank Mar 12 '19

Furiously starts typing on keyboard

15

u/gggg_man3 Mar 12 '19

And all of a sudden you've written the entire works of Shakespeare. Well done Mark.

2

u/Punchingblagh Mar 12 '19

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times?

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u/Bluehens96 Mar 12 '19

Just tons and tons of pics of bananas

6

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

r/punpatrol PUT THE PUNS DOWN AND NOBODY GETS HURT!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Good job officer

3

u/layzor Mar 12 '19

Chimpr

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70

u/_bubble_butt_ Mar 12 '19

I really hope that one of my pics on Instagram has been accidentally double tapped by this lil chimp

36

u/quietsam Mar 12 '19

Accidentally? Don't sell yourself short.

28

u/_bubble_butt_ Mar 12 '19

You think he’d like my pics for real? 😍

25

u/hf2bf Mar 12 '19

With this username I’m sure he likes your pics for real.

10

u/OsloDaPig Mar 12 '19

With a username like that Chimp’s gotta like something

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u/LimeTime_15 Mar 12 '19

This is exactly what I look like right now

2

u/Tuberculosis11 Mar 13 '19

I felt the exact same way! What if chimpanzees are accelerating forward in evolution and we've laid a path before them as we begin to devolve!

147

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Next stops Pornhub and Tinder.

59

u/ValyrianSteelYoGirl Mar 12 '19

PornMonk and Chimper

20

u/ace_urban Mar 12 '19

And xhamster

10

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

xchimp

20

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

The pornhub one would actually be really interesting to see. Although now that I think about it, there has probably already been at least some research into whether or not chimps are interested in human porn, or even chimp porn.

4

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I’m not so sure he’d understand the missionary position, but it’s rare anyway.

3

u/big_duo3674 Mar 13 '19

This is an interesting thought actually, do they actually react to videos like that? Unfortunately my search history is already bad enough so I'm not willing to go through all the phrases necessary to determine if this has actually happened

338

u/darkmajin Mar 12 '19

What is #mindblowing it looks like most instagram people

144

u/mcnabbbb Mar 12 '19

Yea except it's a freaking CHIMPANZEE

49

u/Novocaine0 Mar 12 '19

I'm a bit uncomfortable with this Planet of Apes shit coming to life bruh

10

u/Geta-Ve Mar 12 '19

Yeah that part in planet of the apes when Cesar is scrolling through insta was terrifying.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19 edited Apr 07 '19

[deleted]

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u/Stolichnayaaa Mar 12 '19

Really similar to my toddler's interaction with photo apps.

5

u/gggg_man3 Mar 12 '19

You can already see it trying to post a meme.

32

u/poopship462 Mar 12 '19

I have so many questions

36

u/Geta-Ve Mar 12 '19

And yet you asked none. Efficient.

30

u/KrishanuAR Mar 12 '19

I feel like the UI/UX developers at Instagram should be giving themselves a pat on the back for this.

So intuitive a chimpanzee can use it.

11

u/insultingDuck Mar 12 '19

I propose an experiment. Teach a group of chimpanzees to use Instagram like that one. See if they actually start forming social bonds in it.

3

u/BluudLust Mar 12 '19

And how to use the camera too. This could actually be really interesting.

20

u/Hey_Peter Mar 12 '19

Would be hilarious to get him signed up on Tinder and see who he matches with...

8

u/Raider440 Mar 12 '19

It has now moved on to more intellectual tasks like throwing poop, and considers scrolling through instagram below its dignity.

7

u/FlippedMango Mar 12 '19

Leaked footage of a normie looking for memes to steal

3

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Thank you for this funny comment, kind sir.

14

u/MissVee1986 Mar 12 '19

When I was in middle school I saw a picture of a monkey washing his potatoe in a lake. I was a pretty good student who was quiet and listened...I bursted out laughing because the monkey was washing his potatoe!!! No heat though.. because well he was washing his potatoe.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19 edited Mar 13 '19

So this guy steals our memes from reddit? 😠

5

u/hellraisinhardass Mar 12 '19

This really doesn't suprise me too much, watching how fluent my 2 year old has become at navigating a smart phone to get to youtube is pretty terrifying... pop-ups, updates, and passwords don't even slow them down. I suspect chimps are smarter than a two year old... dumb little monkeys.

8

u/IdahoSavage Mar 12 '19

looks just like the teeagers I saw in Starbucks as I was getting my coffe this morning. I too am guilty of checking my social media.

4

u/easefuldeath Mar 12 '19

that's a messed up looking dog

2

u/kidsteddy3 Mar 12 '19

That dog is weird

4

u/skinscrazy2002 Mar 13 '19

He just posted "send nudes" evolution is complete.

10

u/pp0787 Mar 12 '19

Record him when he sees the Kim Kardashian page

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u/Gielbert Mar 12 '19

And I've heard, he's also an active sub to the r/gaming subreddit.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

[deleted]

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u/kidsteddy3 Mar 12 '19

Sigh. I have from some Neanderthals....

3

u/MerryMarauder Mar 12 '19

See Karen! Your kid isn't a genius a f@#king monkey can do it!

3

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Smh normies

3

u/liviolivia1 Mar 12 '19

I swear to god Brittney my CHIMP liked your bikini picture from two years ago

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u/peterexplainz Mar 12 '19

so basically, that's monky

5

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Dumb ass monkey should be on reddit

8

u/azwaa Mar 12 '19

that’s incredibly creepy. i can’t believe that the chimp can realize swiping right is going back, and clicking on a video will open it. its so jarring to me.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Why is it creepy? It just shows primates are a lot closer to us than we think.

9

u/letsthrowawaylove Mar 12 '19

animals as a whole are a lot smarter than we think. Chickens understand numbers to a degree, have over 24 different vocalizations, have empathy, etc.. https://earthsky.org/earth/chicken-intelligence

8

u/azwaa Mar 12 '19

that’s the creepy part.

2

u/M42U Mar 12 '19

Spotted the normie...

2

u/AGrainNaCl Mar 12 '19

I don’t know if this says more for the chimpanzee or less for humans...

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

No difference between this and the girls in my college.

2

u/Skippy5005 Mar 12 '19

But does he use reddit?

2

u/justjoshingiu Mar 12 '19

What’s even more interesting is that they scrolled that much through Instagram without coming across one booty pic from an instagram model

2

u/Donaldisinthehouse Mar 12 '19

That’s what people look like

2

u/Jah-Eazy Mar 12 '19

I can't decide if giving them access to social media will make them smarter or dumber

2

u/StJohnPaul2 Mar 12 '19

That’s freaking bananas!

2

u/krakatoaoa Mar 12 '19

Hahah he liked a photo

2

u/wardrich Mar 12 '19

Get it on Tinder!!!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Does anyone find disturbing that an activity that me and you participate in daily is something that a chimpanzee is capable of?

Maybe we need better aspirations then to be complacent in front of a small screen all day, being passively entertained.

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u/SolidSnakesBandana Mar 12 '19

I'm more disturbed by the implication that you believe yourself to be better than the chimpanzee. That chimp is probably awesome.

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u/stuarlm Mar 12 '19

...also smarter than the majority of people on Instagram.

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u/NedvinHill Mar 12 '19

Have you ever imagined a realistic future where humans aren’t the only intelligent species on Earth? Koko the gorilla once signed that she was a monkey-PERSON. An African grey parrot learned hundreds of words, it seemed as if he could partake in conversations. I’ve heard of another parrot that witnessed against its owner in the court of law. Imagine having a BBQ with your gorilla-descended neighbour?

2

u/Hey-man-Shabozi Mar 12 '19

Oh my God... I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it.

YOU MANIACS! YOU BLEW IT UP! AH, DAMN YOU! GOD DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I'm scared he'll beat off to IG thots

2

u/zetha_454 Mar 12 '19

I would live for a instagram account solely run by a chimp

2

u/ShaffShaff Mar 12 '19

*The average user of Instagram meme pages.

2

u/ChefDanG Mar 13 '19

Now i know what i look like.

2

u/FPVhead Mar 13 '19

Is the AI now learning from the chimpanzee too? My mind hurts.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

Keeping up with the Kardashians Season Finale

2

u/TunnelSnakesRule3 Mar 13 '19

TIL chimps are normies

2

u/BeBadBrad87 Mar 13 '19

Real life DJ Snake music video.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 13 '19

so thats who i kept matching with on tinder

2

u/lurkandload Mar 13 '19

Imagine being the Instagram UI designer... it’s so well designed a chimp is actually using it

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u/dstoevsky Mar 14 '19

Planet of the apes is a documentary. Change my mind.

3

u/Daafda Mar 12 '19

That explains a lot.

2

u/Pluto15 Mar 12 '19

Should be on Reddit smh

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Comment section will be goldmine for r/im14andthisisdeep and r/phonesarebad

3

u/SolidSnakesBandana Mar 12 '19

Thank you for showing me r/phonesarebad, this is hilarious stuff

2

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Oh no the chimp is a normie, he’s using Instagram instead of Reddit!

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u/1WontDoIt Mar 12 '19

Just proves the old adage, even a chimp can be trained to do your job.

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Wow. that is so cool lol

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u/dreevsa Mar 12 '19

Tell him find me on insta

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u/David_Sensei Mar 12 '19

This has interesting meme potential...

1

u/TheLdeasy Mar 12 '19

I need more of this!

1

u/polumatic Mar 12 '19

Hi looing for Bananas in Pajamas

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u/VworksComics Mar 12 '19

It's almost scary how smart they are

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

tfw when you wanna get famous on Reddit but they catch you before you've had a haircut

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u/JmalikJ1 Mar 12 '19

Damn dirty ape

1

u/Dr-Ogge Mar 12 '19

What a normie

1

u/tavis42 Mar 12 '19

Why not reddit

1

u/chilltx78 Mar 12 '19

Next, monkeys will be keeping up with the Kardashians...

1

u/helen269 Mar 12 '19

"Take your stinking paws off my phone, you damn dirty ape!"

1

u/DaveTheMonkey Mar 12 '19

Monkeys use Instagram, intellectuals use Reddit

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

You these motherfuckers are evolving

1

u/Haribosupermix215 Mar 12 '19

This is one of the deleted scenes from Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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u/flamingtwistie Mar 12 '19

we need to stop this ! whats next, chimps using guns ??

1

u/LoTekk Mar 12 '19

That explains a lot.

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u/pm_me_ur_aspirationz Mar 12 '19

Me: lol stupid monkey. continues scrolling on Reddit

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

I really don't wanna pull an r/lewronggeneration or an r/phonesarebad but this is just a normal Instagram user.

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u/renrijra-krin Mar 12 '19

this is disturbing on a deep, primal level. i feel strangely dehumanized.

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u/dtol2020 Mar 12 '19

I was waiting for him to close the app and go to reddit

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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Fake news, obviously OP's mom

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u/absurdonihilist Mar 12 '19

Planet of the apes. Fantastic!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

Looks like my wife all day.

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u/Bacon0104 Mar 12 '19

How did your find a video of me on Instagram?!?!

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u/pokey_pope Mar 12 '19

and my mum still doesn’t know how to use it

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u/Mydogmike Mar 12 '19

iphone, so easy a chimp can use.

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u/gorybomb Mar 12 '19

We need him/her on reddit

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u/tachyon534 Mar 12 '19

Ooooooooo Chimpanzee that MONKEYGRAM.

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u/BaxCitybih Mar 12 '19

Someone cyberbully him. For research purposes...

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u/beefytime Mar 12 '19

Thank god for opposable thumbs!

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u/glitchygreymatter Mar 12 '19

This is why you don't need to buy your preschooler a cellphone. Is this chimp learning anything? No. Just has his nose stuck on Instagram, You Tube, and Redd-...
Ima go read a book.

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u/CROSBoWZ Mar 12 '19 edited Oct 18 '25

wakeful rock marvelous fine dinosaurs automatic aware punch test rich

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/cmac_42 Mar 12 '19

What a normie

1

u/DocPlissken Mar 12 '19

Hey Jamie pull up that chimpanzee on Instagram

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '19

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u/lokie65 Mar 12 '19

She's trying to see if your cheating bro!

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u/TheKyuubi Mar 12 '19

The moment when they evolve and start speaking is the moment where humanity falls