The Chimp That Caused Backstage Havoc At ‘Saturday Night Live’
“Never work with animals or children,” legendary comedian W.C. Fields once said, and his impeccable logic applied to both kinds of unruly co-stars. Kids and critters are notoriously unreliable, wreaking havoc and making comedy go sideways. During Saturday Night Live’s 30th season, host Jason Bateman and cast member Amy Poehler found out Fields’ truth the hard way. Poehler talked about her difficulties with a chimp named Mikey during this week’s Good Hang podcast. Mikey was the star of a sketch called “Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities,” with Poehler impersonating Sharon Stone getting a faceful of feces. Mikey was “formidable,” noted Poehler, who generally doesn’t care for apes. “I don't like them. It's too stressful for me. And it was a young chimpanzee.”
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The sketch went just fine, but backstage at Studio 8H, Poehler ran into problems. “I walked past the chimpanzee and it reached out and grabbed me by the wrist and wouldn't let go in the middle of a quick change,” she told Ariana Grande, who whispered a worried F-bomb. “I think it was the blonde hair or my vibe. And I started screaming. And chimpanzees are very strong.”
Eventually, the monkey let go, and Poehler was fine. “Would that be considered a blooper?” she asked Grande.“I think that’s PTSD,” the Wicked star replied.Bateman had his own issues with Mikey, reliving his trauma via monologue when he returned to host SNL in 2020. ‘Something kind of weird happened the last time I was hosting,” Bateman began. He told the crowd how he’d worked with an actual chimp back then. “This was 2005. Things were loose.”
Things were so loose that Bateman came out for the goodnights holding a leash with Mikey attached. “We're all hugging, we're saying good night, the credits are rolling,” he remembered. “And then the monkey tried to kill me.”
Some of this is on Bateman, who thought he was being a nice guy by getting on his knees to stare Mikey in the face. Bad idea. “The chimp unhinges his jaws, he flashes his teeth, and he tries to bite my entire nose off,” Bateman said. “This is a true story. Apparently, this is a thing with chimps, I guess. They hate that humans have faces and they want to remove them.”Watch Bateman’s monologue to see a clip of Mikey snarling at Bateman, chomping at the actor while also striking out with an open hand. “This camera saw the terror,” Bateman said. “It was terrifying.”Ever the showbiz pro, Bateman kept smiling while the cameras rolled. “But inside I'm thinking, a monkey just attacked me and nobody cares. They just keep hugging.”
According to Bateman, the beast’s trainers felt terrible and had the host stop by later that night so Mikey could apologize. “My first thought was, this is a trap. He wants more. He's still snacky,” he said. But he decided to give the beast a second chance. This time, Mikey shuffled over to Bateman and put a hand on his shoulder as if to apologize. “It was a very, very beautiful moment,” Bateman said. “It was a connection between man and nature that I will never ever, ever forget.” But Bateman wasn’t quite done with Mikey. “The monkey was destroyed later that night,” he joked. “It was my choice. Lessons have to be learned. But I would like to think that if he was here with us tonight to see me host 15 years later, he'd probably rip my nuts off.”
