Everyone here should go check out Why Koko (Probably) Couldn't Talk (Sorry) by Soup Emporium after this, it's really really good

If gorillas could speak ASL, they would have developed their own sign languages without human intervention. There's some astonishing hubris implied in the idea that they had that ability all along, but just needed our meddling as a catalyst.

there's a tumblr post that makes me crack up every time that's like "koko berkin bag... koko fashionable gorilla." which is even more of a coherent sentence than she would have put together but lol

Cats have lips 100%, if they didn't they would look like t-rexs. there is a new study about cats' facial expressions and it referenced lips a lot. Turns out that if they are pushing their lips outward(weird but if you have a cat you realize they do this when they are purring for example) it is like smiling.

The mirror test is pretty simple. basically, you put a mark on the subject that they would not be able to see (like some paint on their face or neck) and then you put them in front of a mirror. If they notice the mark and check themselves in that spot, they've passed the mirror test. It could be that some animals simply don't GAF, but it's definitely a pass if they repeatedly are able to remove marks using the mirror.

Nipple and people sounding alike makes more sense to a verbal person - are the ASL signs for People and Nipple even close? Thinking of a word that's close to a word is fine-ish... but Koko knows signs for words so would sign a similar sign maybe, but probably not associate signs in the same way

Two years ago(?) I taught a freshman course called "Bad," with weeks on bad music, bad ideas, bad people, bad sex etc and Koko was one of the two "bad science" classes we did was on Koko - I'm so happy to see you two cover this here! It's also pretty horrifying to know just how many people went on record as saying that seeing Koko made them want to learn sign language, because apparently they were more invested in being able to speak to a gorilla they'd never meet compared to, like... all deaf people?

elephants don't treat mirrors like they treat other animals, they do things like check out parts of itself that it can't see, like the inside of its mouth

"her science is so pseudo" i'm crying

When Caelen said "Thank you for coming..." I automatically said "...to our Dead Talk" aloud, and now that's the subtitle for this show in my mind.

If being a nipple enthusiast is wrong, i don't want to be right.

"why do we have a 'cry at night' button?" killed me

Oh god. As someone who had books on her since I was a toddler, Koko's was the only "celebrity" death which caused me to literally sob. I wanted to be a primatologist for years so I could study gorillas (they're still one of my favorite animals) and used to idolize Penny. This episode feels like it was created just to cause me pain. Thanks guys! 💖

The saddest thing about Koko: is that because people thought she could talk she didn't even get to have a kinda like nature environment. He self determination was more limited because people thought she could talk.

Explaining Koko is like telling a full grown adult that santa claus isn't real. It's so sad.

The first 5 minutes had me cracking up. Calen's like "Koko was kind of a dumb bitch."

"With great power comes no responsibility" Now there's your merch Idea.

Caelan being mad at Hoots for knowing it was about Koko 🤝 Me, having read the name of the episode

“cry frown sad trouble” oh pulitzer prize winning speech

"THE GORILLA UNDERSTANDERS HAVE LOGGED ON."