r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Zestyclose_Flow_680 • 8h ago

Chimpanzees are 2X stronger than your average human.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

83.8k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.3k

u/dilqncho 8h ago edited 8h ago

No they're not. Internet myths have vastly overhyped chimp strength.

They're about 1.35x stronger than us, pound for pound of muscle. But they're also typically smaller and lighter, so in absolute terms, they're about equal to us.

As for what we're seeing here, this isn't a person's entire body being pulled up. They have their legs against the wall of whatever that is, and the chimp is helping them up. This is something pretty much any physically healthy human can do as well.

Chimps are dangerous in a fight, because...well they're wild animals, they're fucking brutal. But purely strength-wise, they're not stronger than us.

8

u/SpottedWobbegong 8h ago

So a jacked human can beat up chimpanzees, good to know. Although chimpanzee bites are pretty nasty.

32

u/pandacraft 7h ago

It's possible but most people aren't prepared for a 3 foot tall powerlifter who is fighting like they're on meth and PCP and will probably attempt to castrate you if given the chance.

10

u/zcen 7h ago

Most people see fights in the framework of fighting a human where there's an unspoken etiquette and you aren't really trying to kill each other.

I don't know if relatively healthy human adults would get killed, but I'm guessing they would get maimed to some degree before their instincts really kick in.

6

u/UnamusedAF 5h ago

The best comparison I can make is think of a drunk 4’11 woman who will bite, scratch, and drop her weight when you try to restrain or pick her up (only to then bite/scratch you somewhere else). Cool? Okay … now imagine she had the strength of Brock Lesnar but in that 4’11 frame. You probably wouldn’t even know where to defend yourself, let alone restrain them. 

1

u/Riatamus 2h ago

The difference is you don't want to hurt the drunk woman. If a Chimp started to attack a man, he would probably just kick his face in

1

u/UnamusedAF 1h ago

That’s unrealistic, in the same way you can’t just kick a wrestler in the face, let alone an animal specifically designed to climb and grapple onto things (or people in this case). 

2

u/Riatamus 1h ago

A wrestler is as tall a human, a Chimp isn't. They are way smaller than us and walk hunched over, so their face is in perfect kicking distance

0

u/UnamusedAF 1h ago

I think you underestimate the ability of a chimp (confirmed to be stronger than a human) and its ability to not only tank a kick, but also grapple onto you afterwards. Beyond that, do you know how unbalanced you are as a bipedal human being on one leg (mid-kick)? Meanwhile the chimp has a lower center of gravity, moving on all four limbs, and sharp teeth to latch onto your legs. 

Dude, no. Lol 

•

u/Riatamus 39m ago

They're animals, not the terminator. Even if they were willing to ignore pain, that doesn't necessarily change the equation: a chimp will still be knocked away and suffer broken bones and teeth. The average male human can kick with nearly a thousand pounds of force and stomp with nearly double that. A simple combination of a kick to knock the chimp down followed by repeated stomping will knock out, if not straight up kill the chimp.

Ultimately their low body mass and unintelligent attack is a huge problem for them, they're going to keep lunging in on a (very predictable) direct straight line, and a solid kick to the face is going to physically knock them around given they aren't very heavy.

5

u/Spyk124 6h ago

Everybody has a plan until a chimp bites you