Chimp Crazy: Tonia Haddix's Great Ape Escape with Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart | 72

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6 • 884 Ratings

🗓️ 27 January 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A Holiday Inn bathroom becomes a makeshift chimp sanctuary. A headless ape corpse rides shotgun down the highway. PETA and Alan Cumming join forces against a middle-aged nurse with a penchant for primates. This isn't a fever dream – it's the bonkers true story of Tonia Haddix and one woman's simian obsession gone wild.

Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart from This Might Get Weird join Misha to peel back the layers of this bananas flop.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pst. Hey, you. Yeah, you, the one who can't get enough of the big flop? I've got a proposition for you. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcasts, and you'll unlock a treasure trove of ad-free episodes and early access to the big flop. It's like having a secret map to the most notorious corporate catastrophes.
0:22.6	Trust me, it's an offer you can't refuse. I have a serious question for all my fellow 90s
0:28.6	kids. Why did all our favorite movies feature exotic animals? Free Willy, Babe, George of the
0:35.2	jungle, buddy? And who is managing all of these animal actors?
0:39.3	And where did they all go? Well, today on the big flop, we're going chimp crazy and talking about
0:45.2	Tanya Haddicks, a handler who went bananas for chimps and who might just end up in a human zoo.
0:52.1	You know, prison.
0:59.9	A movie stars, please, a missing chimpanzee, an owner accused in its disappearance.
1:06.5	For many of these chimp owners, they view these primates as their children, and they're not willing to just give them up.
1:10.3	What good would it do for me to fake Tonka's death? We are on a sinking ship.
1:22.0	From Wondery and at Will Media, this is The Big Flop, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time.
1:31.4	I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar who's got a great party trick with a banana
1:37.1	at Don't Cross a Gay Man. And today we have a comedian, co-host of This Might Might Get Weird and a New York Times bestselling author
1:45.9	with her new cookbook.
1:47.2	All I think about is food.
1:48.9	It's Mamory Hart.
1:50.7	Welcome, Bestie.
1:52.0	It is a pleasure to be here.
1:53.7	Let's get wild.
1:55.3	Also on our show, we have an actress, a YouTube star, fellow co-host of This Might Get Weird.
2:02.2	It's Grace Helping.
2:03.7	Woo-woo, hi.
	...

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