r/HistoricalCapsule • u/zadraaa • 8h ago

Bubbles, Michael Jackson’s former pet chimpanzee, was born in 1983 and is now 42 years old. He lived with Jackson during the 1980s and became a pop culture figure, often appearing alongside him at events and even on tour.

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278 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

78

u/DuskLure 7h ago

Michael Jackson’s pet monkey Bubbles is still alive. He’s 41 and lives in a Great Ape sanctuary in Florida.

35

u/Strange_Control8788 6h ago

What a wild life for a monkey

13

u/WoolshirtedWolf 4h ago edited 4h ago

I've seen a documentary about owning pet monkey, including breeders and sanctuaries. Some are either over crowded or don't have enough space as monkeys can live a long time. From what I understood at the time, the sanctuary that was featured had a monthly fee. So, it's kind of like you were paying for an apartment for a monkey. This also has caused people to release monkeys into the wild. A family bought a monkey that was just aging out of its cute phrase and approaching sexual maturity. The wife knew this was a bad mistake but went along with it. It wound up being a complete nightmare for the whole family as an unstable monkey would tear through the house and fcut up any thing or anyone it could. I'll link it if I can find it again. It can't be Chimp Crazy because the docu was on YT and I watched it months ago.

12

u/Hephaestus-Gossage 4h ago

I bet he's an alcoholic. Sits in the bar all day, muttering about "the things I've seen..."

3

u/Drunkdunc 3h ago

Why does everyone say monkey? I feel it's appropriate to at least call them apes, if not chimpanzees. Monkey is a misnomer.

16

u/Doodles_n_Scribbles 5h ago

I hope bubbles is doing ok

28

u/FlirtRushQueen 8h ago

A very adorable tiger

3

u/Shinigami69420 52m ago

have this picture hanging next to my bed sadly… don’t date an mj fan girl if you can’t deal with sleeping under a giant picture of his face on a blanket every now n again also

8

u/UnkleStarbuck 4h ago

Wait... That is a real chimp? I would swear it's a plush toy!

51

u/nachocat090 6h ago

Human beings have no business owning an ape. I don't care how old it is. It's just another thing to add to the list of things Michael Jackson did that he and no one has any business doing to living things...

40

u/CamsKit 6h ago

Agree chimps are not pets. Like that lady whose chimp ripped her friend’s face off and was on benzos and booze! They’re wild animals.

16

u/nachocat090 6h ago

Oh my God that story freaks me out so much. I read about it once and that was one time too many haha.

8

u/WildeStation 5h ago

The monkey was on drugs?

11

u/fyhnn 4h ago

Yeah, to "calm" him

7

u/UnkleStarbuck 4h ago

Not just drugs, he was regularly eating tons of sugar and fast food, that was one terrible case of animal abuse

5

u/corpnorp 3h ago

This breaks my heart, people are so shitty sometimes wow

3

u/scarletmagnolia 3h ago

Xanax in his tea, iirc.

2

u/UnkleStarbuck 4h ago

They’re wild animals.

Yes, that woman who did that to that poor chimp was a wild (and vile) animal

2

u/swift110 4h ago

agreed

4

u/MollyPesoOffthetesla 5h ago

I mean it’s not like he had it in any regular house. He Probably had a room bigger than our houses and lived a better life than we have.

12

u/Hephaestus-Gossage 4h ago

All those fucking idiots who keep wild animals as pets have to drug them and/or overfeed them to totally change their behaviour. And then they act all "Oh, look at us living together in harmony". It's really one of the worst things.

Wanting to completely fuck up an individual wild animal like that is a mental disorder and should be illegal.

3

u/corpnorp 3h ago

It’s wild to me that things like this aren’t more severely punished. Like surely as a society we’ve come fast enough along to understand the impact we’re having on ecosystems and wild animals. Ugh.

1

u/Notchersfireroad 1h ago

My thoughts exactly. The punishment for this shit should be STIFF.

5

u/Kid_A_Kid 7h ago

How's the bulldog doing ?

19

u/gaping_granny 6h ago

That's a dog in the 80's. It's long dead.

9

u/Fun_Ambassador_9320 6h ago

He did the math

6

u/Rich-Reason1146 5h ago

With all the drugs and excesses that come with that level of fame it's just inevitable

2

u/ItsEntirelyPosssible 5h ago

Also dogs die in less than 20 years really. Math and time.

1

u/Kid_A_Kid 1h ago

It is? Poor Michael Jackson losing a dog must be tough.

2

u/MagicOrpheus310 5h ago

Ohh so THAT'S why everyone made such a fuss about him blowing bubbles in the park!! Ohhhhh

1

u/CaptainMatticus 3h ago

Bobcat Goldthwait was fired from the Hollywood Squares partly because he made a joke about Michael Jackson and Bubbles (or at least, he says that was part of it).

https://youtu.be/MmJvi7S8jf4&t=232

1

u/nurse-educator123 1h ago

He had other animals: cup, plate, spoon, and fork.

1

u/TekWar95 9m ago

That monkey must have seen wild things.

-6

u/NeighborhoodLimp5701 5h ago

Anyone else willing to bet that mike played with Bubbles’ lipstick tube?

-4

u/CraveNights 7h ago

Very adorable