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Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is not being eaten by a man in a gorilla suit.
Gorilla Suits are full-bodied costumes loosely resembling gorillas or other large primates. Gorillas have long fascinated audiences, as a source of both awe and horror (as with King Kong) but also humor. The traditional gorilla suit embodies both, and as such has become a popular Halloween or masquerade party costume. It has also seen extensive use in film, television, and comics, sometimes to symbolize a "real" gorilla but quite often for a gag in which a character wears a gorilla suit, and at some point, becomes entangled with the real thing (typically, played by another actor in a suit).
The early history of the art of gorilla impersonation is foggy, but seems to date at least to the late 1920s, with the rise of Charles Gemora, an early practitioner of the art in such short films as Circus Lady and the Our Gang entry Bear Shooters. In later decades, in addition to abounding in B movies, the gorilla suit came to prominence in television, in a wide range of series from 1960s sitcoms like The Addams Family and The Beverly Hillbillies, which typically attempted to present their gorillas as "real," to more recent series such as L.A. Law and Scrubs, which have contrived to have regular characters don the primate costume.
In addition to the movies and Halloween, gorilla suits are recognized through National Gorilla Suit Day, which falls on January 31st every year. The holiday was concocted by MAD cartoonist Don Martin in a 1964 paperback Don Martin Bounces Back!. The most notable story in the tome revolves around a hapless fellow named Fenster, who dares to mock the concept of National Gorilla Suit Day and is thus repeatedly pummeled by men in gorilla suits.
Gorilla suit performance involves pantomime, wearing a heavy costume, broad physical comedy skills, and a partial suspension of disbelief, while playing on the very artifice involved. In this respect, gorilla suits are not far removed from puppetry. Perhaps recognising this fact, Jim Henson utilized typical gorilla suits, and never a full-bodied gorilla Muppet, in several productions, as a comic throw-away gag. In all such cases, the person inside the gorilla suit is uncredited, and research has yet to identify the performers.
In recent decades, the work of performers/designers such as Rick Baker have altered the mechanics and effect of gorilla suits, often utilizing animatronics, taxidermy eyes, realistic fur, and other aides to prevent a more realistic mimicking of genuine apes. Jim Henson's Creature Shop has contributed to this development in its own way, through work on Buddy and George of the Jungle, and many suit performers of Henson creatures have also portrayed gorillas in other productions. However, the Jim Henson Pictures feature film MirrorMask returned the gorilla suit to its roots, with circus performers donning the costume, and accessorizing it with a tutu.
| Photo | Production | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Time Piece | In an echo of an earlier scene involving boys on pogo sticks, a costumed gorilla is seen astride his own pogo stick, in front of the Man's house. |
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The Cube | The Man in the Cube is allowed by the manager to leave. The man sarcastically predicts that the moment he steps outside the door, "two gorillas grab me, dressed in ballet costumes, drag me back, throw me on the floor, and dance around me singing "Home Sweet Home!" Which is precisely what happens |
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Sesame Street, "Mad Painter" #5 | The Painter plies his trade at a zoo, and encounters a gorilla, who agreeably assists him in painting a 5. |
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The Muppet Show episode 116 | In the Muppet Labs sketch, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew proudly presents his gorilla detector, only to suffer an intrusion from a costumed gorilla. Perhaps demonstrating a keen awareness of the artificiality of the gorilla suit, the detector fails to go off. |
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MirrorMask | The finale of the Campbell Family Circus' nightly performance involves a choreographed chase with a gorilla, clad in tutu and party hat. The gorilla is traditionally performed by Joanne Campbell, but while halfway into the suit, she falls ill. Unbeknownst to her family, her role is assumed by the circus strongman. |
Connections
The following Muppet/Creature Shop performers have also portrayed gorillas in non-Henson productions.
- John Alexander played gorillas in multiple productions, including Planet of the Apes (2001), Baby's Day Out, Jeeves and Wooster, Fierce Creatures, and Gorillas in the Mist
- Bill Barretta was one of several performers for Katie the Gorilla in Born to Be Wild
- Ailsa Berk played Kala in Greystoke
- Deep Roy played primates in Greystoke and Planet of the Apes (2001)
- Kiran Shah played primates in Greystoke
- Leif Tilden played gorillas in Born to Be Wild (with Barretta) and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
- Mak Wilson played Figs in Greystoke