Most zoo visits happen without incident, but sometimes, things go wrong. Visitors scale enclosure walls, and chimpanzees lure people closer for bad reasons.

However, it is when zoos close for the day that things truly get weird. From strange thefts and maulings to bizarre drills, this behind-the-scenes strangeness cannot beat the time when three zoos stole a herd of elephants.

10 Kaln’s Egg

A sanctuary in Gloucester, England, rehabilitates wild species of birds rescued as pets or captive working individuals. For the past 23 years, the haven has taken care of a male eagle owl called Kaln.

In 2019, he laid an egg. The declaration of motherhood was unexpected because the staff never considered the owl as female. Even Kaln looked surprised by the egg.

The sanctuary cannot be faulted for mistaking the bird’s anatomy. Determining the gender of an owl is difficult. Males and females often look identical, and their chromosomes are similar enough to foil genetic tests.

The sanctuary has no interest in such tests. Their priority is not breeding but rehabilitation. Should a bird behave like a male or female, that is how it is viewed.

Kaln carried on like a guy. She tried to mate with everything and never laid the usual six eggs that female eagle owls deposit during the winter. These days, Kaln is seen as the sanctuary’s “tomboy.”^[1]

9 The Two Dads

The Sea Life Sydney Aquarium homes several penguins. Among them were Sphen and Magic. The gentoo penguins were inseparable. They courted and even built a nest together. They were also both male. Seeing that the birds were devoted to each other, the staff provided them with a fake egg.

They did such a good job that the aquarium gave them a real egg in 2018. Thinking that they were new dads, Sphen performed security patrols while Magic incubated. After a while, Magic guarded the nest while Sphen warmed the egg.

Their foster chick hatched on October 19, 2018. Weighing no more than an apple, little “Sphengic” was doted on by both of its fathers. When it comes to penguins, same-sex pairs are nothing new. However, it remains exceptionally unusual for them to raise a chick.^[2]

8 Santino’s Game

At the Furuvik Zoo in Sweden, Santino is the dominant male of a group of chimpanzees. He developed the habit of pelting visitors with “ammunition.” The latter included stones from his enclosure’s moat and concrete lumps that he pilfered from an artificial island.

His stockpiles proved that chimps could plan a future event, something previously considered an exclusively human trait. Why Santino bombarded people was not a mystery. He likely tried to dominate them. Dominant males from other zoos have done the same.

However, in 2012, Santino did something unexpected. After a zoo guide removed a group of visitors from the chimp’s enclosure for safety reasons, he was left without admirers for hours. Santino decided to lure them back.

He hid his projectiles near the visitors’ area, and when the trusting humans returned, he resumed his rudeness. This was the first recorded instance of deception in chimps. The remarkable part was that Santino had made plans about people he could not see and also predicted their behavior.^[3]

7 The Valentine’s Day Offer

In 2019, the El Paso Zoo in Texas warmed the hearts of revenge-oriented people—more specifically, anyone who despised their ex and wanted to do something about it. The zoo asked for the first name and last initial of an ex. This title was then transferred to a cockroach. The insect was destined to be fed to a meerkat.

Those who submitted the names could watch the live-streamed event on Valentine’s Day. Called “Quit Bugging Me,” the stunt was a success. Soon after the project was announced, over 1,500 names were submitted, a little too much for the zoo’s meerkat population.

The bugs are rich in nutrients, and each mongoose received a single cockroach. To make up for the fact that most of the names would never end up inside a meerkat’s digestive system, the zoo revealed all the names on social media.

Other institutions followed suit. El Paso offered the name-a-cockroach service for free, but those who really wanted to see an ex consumed could pay between $2 and $15 for the privilege at three other zoos.^[4]

6 Zoo Jeans

A pair of jeans remains a fierce fashion choice, although few manufacturers can beat the wild way in which Zoo Jeans makes their pants. In 2014, Mineko Club needed a fundraiser idea for conservation.

The Japanese volunteer group came up with a solution that was both marketable and entertaining for zoo animals. They wrapped tires with denim material as toys for the Kamine Zoo in Hitachi City. The denim wheels were given to tigers, lions, and bears. The predators quickly took to the curious objects and started tearing away at the cloth.

It is no secret that torn jeans are hot favorites, but those mauled to shreds by dangerous creatures are even more so. After the material was rescued, it was sewn up as designer jeans. Buyers had a choice between the lion, tiger, or bear model. The fundraiser held an online auction, and jeans ravaged by a tiger received the best bid of $1,200.^[5]

5 Tilda’s Humanlike Calls

Orangutans utter a wide variety of sounds, but a female called Tilda does something unique. The Bornean orangutan lives at Germany’s Cologne Zoo. When she wants more food, Tilda calls for the menu in two different ways. The remarkable thing is that it resembles human vocalizations.

Researchers who analyzed the noises compared one call with clicking sounds used by the Bushmen of Africa. The second consisted of rapid grumbles that mimicked vowel sounds.

Tilda is the first orangutan born in the wild that learned to “speak human” to communicate her needs to people. How she did it remains unknown. But before the ape arrived at the zoo, she was in show business and perhaps was taught as part of an act.

The research might help to understand the origins of speech. If Tilda’s anatomy allows her to make vowel sounds and other humanlike noises, then so could the common ancestors of the great apes. Further investigation might one day pinpoint when and how the first words were spoken.^[6]

4 The Butt Slapper

Wanted: Man who slapped a hippo’s bottom. True story.

In 2018, a visitor to the Los Angeles Zoo went to the hippopotamus enclosure. Even though entering zoo enclosures is prohibited and punishable by law, the man clambered over a railing and approached the two hippos. He soundly smacked four-year-old Rosie on the butt.

She flinched, and the other hippo—her mother, Mara—was startled by the whole thing. Before Mara could experience parental rage, the man fled. The trespasser’s bizarre behavior was caught on film. Although it became widely circulated on social media and was shown to police, the slapper remains at large.^[7]

In a way, the incident was funny and at least the animals were not hurt. However, a hippo is capable of being exceptionally dangerous. In fact, they are one of Africa’s most lethal—and surprisingly nimble—animals. To take one by surprise, as the man did, is even more deadly.

3 The Monkey Cage Incident

John Owen Casford had a brilliant idea. To impress his girlfriend, he was going to give her a squirrel monkey. As one cannot purchase the tiny primates at Walmart, he decided to steal one.

In 2018, Casford strolled through an unguarded gate at a New Zealand zoo. He broke open two locks meant to secure the monkey cage and entered. After that, the details got hazy.

Things got violent at one point. Not only were the monkeys hurt and traumatized but Casford also had his own problems. The thief was found the next morning with fractured teeth, a twisted ankle, a bruised back, and a broken leg.^[8]

The 23-year-old was charged and sentenced to almost three years in prison. The verdict included punishment for prior crimes that summer, including several assaults on other people. Although Casford was man enough to plead guilty to the zoo incident and explained that he had broken his leg trying to get over a fence, nobody knows how he received the other injuries.

2 A Bizarre Escape Drill

Japanese zoos believe in being prepared. Every year, they hold drills for events like earthquakes and escaped animals. In 2019, the Tobe Zoo in Ehime decided to train its personnel to deal with a lion on the loose.

A local news station captured the training, and the video went viral. Not because the drill was good, but because it was so bizarre. Since Tobe Zoo could not use a real animal, a staff member dressed up as a lion. The giant puppet, looking more like a mascot than an object of serious training, wandered around the zoo.

At one point, keepers cornered it with nets. The lion-guy knocked several of them to the ground and ran away. The staff changed tactics and took off in hot pursuit in a vehicle.^[9]

As they drove by, the fake lion was shot with a fake tranquilizer. The cat keeled over, and the staff demonstrated how to correctly handle a sedated lion. Needless to say, the online community found the whole thing hilarious.

1 The Stolen Herd

In 2016, three US zoos absconded with a herd of elephants. The zoos expressed an interest in removing the animals, stating that the deteriorating conditions in Swaziland were a danger to them.

Indeed, there was a severe drought and removing the elephants would relieve the pressure of finding food for other animals, like rhinos. At worst, the zoos feared that the 18 elephants would be culled.^[10]

Animal rights activists took the zoo officials to court because the activists believed that the herd had to be relocated elsewhere in the African wilderness. A date was scheduled in US federal court, but the zoos decided to make their move anyway. During a daring mission, a large cargo plane touched down in Swaziland. The elephants were sedated, placed in crates, and loaded onto the plane.

When the news broke, the activists were not understanding. Some claimed that it was the most underhanded thing they had ever witnessed. Even so, the US Fish and Wildlife Service provided a permit to import the elephants legally. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums also sided with the zoos.

“Saturday Night Live” is an institution. Not just in comedy, but in all of entertainment. The show is now nearer to fifty than not, and over those many years has showcased wave after wave of comedy’s best, from Bill Murray through Will Ferrell to Kate McKinnon. Altogether, the prodigious cast has produced thousands of original characters, many of them, cultural icons. But among those, a few are a bit iffy in terms of taste.

Decades of constantly evolving culture have rendered some of “SNL”‘s most famous characters dated, obsolete, or even downright offensive. That’s not to say that they aren’t funny or that they shouldn’t have been on the air, just that it can be eye-opening looking back on our changing etiquette. To that end, here are ten of the most borderline—and actually offensive—characters to appear on “Saturday Night Live.”

10 The Samurai

Comedy was easier in the 70s. One racist caricature, and you’ve got a recurring hit sketch. No late nights for that writing team, just a quick assemblage of phony Japanese-sounding mumble-screams, and the whole crew is home by four. The ticket to Easy Street in question is John Belushi’s character, the Samurai.

The Samurai would appear with a new occupation every time—sometimes a hitman, hotel owner, or disco dancer—but always the lowest common denominator in humor. The entire premise was that a medieval-era samurai was somehow in the current era and had found a new occupation. That’s it. Belushi gave his all to the role physically, as usual, but he had virtually no dialogue to work with. Everything he ‘said’ was just racist phonetic aping of Japanese. Eventually, every sketch would fizzle out until it ended, with no structure or thought, just five minutes of a funny accent and indignity.

9 The Continental

Christopher Walken has hosted “SNL” seven times, enough to have developed his own recurring character. That character, a vaguely ethnic, hapless dilettante named the Continental, is also an endless fountain of #metoo fuel.

Every Continental sketch starts with the character fumbling his way through a date at his luxurious suite until that woman decides to escape. Apparently, his constant allusions to stalking her, drugging her, and even chloroforming her somehow sours her grapes. But when she moves to leave, the Continental inevitably blocks her exit, forcing her to stay, even going so far as to lock her in and try to swallow the key. Worst of all, the camera acts as the woman’s eyes, putting us all in the action as a sleazy old pervert tries to molest us.

8 The D-ck in a Box Dudes

Speaking of creepy grown men, there’s “D-ck in a Box.” One of Lonely Island’s biggest hits, the song “D-ck in A Box” featuring Justin Timberlake, is still a popular rewatch and singalong. But in addition to being catchy and fun, it’s also rapey and gross.

The concept behind “D-ck in a Box” is a simple question: How do you trick a woman into seeing your penis? It has been asked before, often answered with a flung-open trench coat. But it was always hindered by those pesky labels like ‘flashing’ and ‘indecent exposure’ and ‘non-consensual.’ Finally our brave heroes found the solution: hide your penis in a box and give it to a woman who is expecting a nice gift. That way she can be doubly disappointed.

7 Stefon

Bill Hader’s Stefon was probably the best recurring “SNL” character of the last couple of decades. The pop that Seth Meyers would elicit upon cueing up the guest character was unparalleled. But as funny as the character was, it was just as problematic in many ways.

For one, like so many other “SNL” characters over the years, his stereotypical homosexuality made him a constant punchline. For another, Stefon used the term midget in almost every appearance, despite the facts that 1.) that hadn’t been the appropriate term for a decade before he first used it, and 2.) even within the narrative, Meyers repeatedly told Stefon that the word was offensive, which Stefon ignored. At one point, Stefon heeded Meyers’s advice, correcting midget to ‘fun-sized.’ Stefon also had a running storyline in which he tried to seduce Meyers, built entirely on the premise that “no” means “yes.” 

6 Stuart Smalley

Unlike Stefon, whose homosexuality was just one piece of the bit, Stuart Smalley was gay—and that was really the whole joke. Well, that and the fact that Smalley’s father was an alcoholic (haha?). But he only drank because his son was gay, so we’re back to comedic square one.

Smalley, played by future (and now past) senator Al Franken, spoke in a stereotypical lisp, wore Malibu Ken outfits, and was in touch with his feelings. In the 90s, that was enough to make him an evergreen gag. In one sketch, he talks about his father beating him and his mother, and because Smalley was too effeminate to stop the assault, it’s (theoretically) funny.

5 Pat

When people see an old sketch and react with, “man, that wouldn’t fly today!” there is a solid 50% chance it was a Pat sketch. Played by the criminally underrated Julia Sweeney, Pat’s whole deal was—nay, every aspect of their entire existence was—based around the fact that Pat presented as equal-parts man and woman.

Pat had an androgynous name, dated others with androgynous names, wore androgynous clothes, had androgynous habits, etc. The joke was predicated on the outdated notion that only two genders were unwaveringly defined and completely immiscible. In the real world, even in the 90s, people aren’t split 50/50 between football-lumberjacks and ballerina-princesses, but no one in Pat’s world seemed to know that. At least the sketch had a fun game built in where the supporting cast slyly tried to coax information out of Pat that would confirm their gender. That at least beats the Samurai, who just kind of… samurai-ed.

4 Governor David Paterson

There are a few characters on this list whose entire bits are one-dimensional and offensive—the Samurai, Stuart Smalley, Pat, and as we’ll get to, the Ambiguously Gay Duo. But there’s only one character who can boast the hat-trick of being one-dimensional, offensive, and an actual person. That’s Governor David Paterson, as played by Fred Armisen.

Paterson was the actual governor of New York State in the late aughts and was legally blind. For “SNL,” this was a goldmine and they routinely dug into that mine for sweet, sweet disability jokes. Paterson would bump into furniture, use binoculars to read, and stumble in front of the camera, unawares. At least Armisen got to flex his superb space-work.

3 The Word Association Guy

This sketch aired in “SNL”‘s first season and starred Chevy Chase as a man conducting a job interview for potential hire Richard Pryor. Chase and Pryor begin a word association game as a test, which escalates quickly.

The pair exchange racial slurs until Chase throws out a full, uncensored n-word on primetime, network television. The sketch is quick, simple, funny, and feels punk rock and dangerous in the spirit of those early years. It has become a historic television moment, despite—or rather because—it went farther than any sketch has dared before or after.

2 The Ambiguously Gay Duo

After Stefon and Smalley, we round out the ‘gay people are funny’ trilogy with one the most offensive recurring “SNL” sketch ever: The Ambiguously Gay duo. The sketch was an all-star exhibition, created by Robert Smigel and voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell as the titular duo, a pair of muscular male superheroes who seemed completely unaware of their homoerotic behavior.

In an obvious parody of early Batman and Robin, the pair spouted endless catchphrases that were equal parts enthusiastic and inane. The twist was that the phrases and all the superhero moves they accompanied were clearly gay.

The duo drove a penis-shaped car, flew by mounting each other, dodged bullets by doing ballet, and defeated evil by putting any number of penis-shaped objects in an equal number of butt-shaped objects. The joke was that they had no idea how it all looked, and as offensive as it all is, the jokes still hold up today.

1 Canteen Boy

Even after all that, there is a clear winner: Canteen Boy. Though most Canteen Boy appearances were offensive due to their consistent mocking of the mentally challenged (despite what the disclaimer claimed), one sketch went a whole lot further. It is offensive enough to not exist on YouTube at all, save for mentions by third parties. The sketch in question is when Alec Baldwin led Canteen Boy’s scout troop and naturally… tried to molest him.

Baldwin spends a night in the woods with Canteen Boy and tries his damndest to seduce him, mental disability or no. He takes his own shirt off, tries to get Canteen Boy drunk, forces the scout into his own sleeping bag, nuzzles him, and even sucks his finger. The sketch was topical, as accusations about scout leader sexual assaults were common at the time. That made the sketch even more offensive to victims and their families. And no matter when it airs, jokes about molesting the mentally challenged are justifiably bound to raise a few hackles.