CLASSIC: The Story of Max, South Africa's Famous, Crime-fighting Gorilla

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2024

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When confronted with a home invasion, Max the gorilla brought international fame to the Johannesburg Zoo and briefly became the city's most famous crime fighter. He received numerous endorsements, and a statue was erected in his honor. But what brought Max to this level of celebrity? In this week's Classic episode, Ben and Super Producer Max -- not the ape -- explore the story of a crime-fighting gorilla that became a symbol of justice in an intensely troubled South Africa.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome ridiculous historians to this week's classic episode.
0:04.5	If you're hearing this, when it publishes, welcome to December 7th, 2024.
0:11.6	Joined, as always, with my super producer, Mr. Max Williams.
0:17.0	I'm guessing I'm going to be the second most famous Max on this episode.
0:22.1	I don't know, man.
0:23.0	You know what?
0:24.0	History is weird, dare I say ridiculous.
0:27.8	It's Ben Bullen here with Max Williams.
0:31.4	Our faithful correspondent, Mr. Noel Brown, is adventuring.
0:37.7	And Max, I am so glad that you are here with us in this intro to our classic episode.
0:44.7	We were talking about it a little bit off air.
0:47.8	This is the story of another Max.
0:52.2	Yeah, this one's interesting because I've heard this one referenced a lot.
0:55.5	So, you know, this is before I worked on the show.
0:58.2	But this is what?
1:00.4	This is our cutoff time, right?
1:01.9	For stories, if it's after this, it's not, we can't consider it history, right?
1:07.0	Absolutely.
1:07.9	That is a decision I made arbitrarily. We've just sort of gone with that for quite some time. It goes back to the philosophical question of what counts as history. History is a living thing. It's an ongoing conversation. If you are a fan of history, then you probably have dealt with the same dilemma.
1:32.6	You have wrestled with this idea.
1:34.8	What counts is history?
1:36.4	What counts as the present?
	...

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