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The most famous baboons on the internet, explained

Joss Fong is a founding member of the Vox video team and a producer focused on science and tech. She holds a master's degree in science, health, and environmental reporting from NYU.

Anyone who has seen the animated GIFs of baboons in an office has wondered how they got there. So we called up the photographers who created the clips years before animated GIFs were popular.


The office baboon clips floating around the internet come from Getty's library, but were originally created by G.K. and Vikki Hart, who run a stock photography and videography company out of San Francisco.

They filmed the baboons in 2003 and never imagined that they would later become a internet phenomenon. But it was probably inevitable — there's something about these specific animals in this specific setting that provides a perfect canvas for observational humor.

office baboon gif


To hear the Harts talk about the day they filmed the baboons and learn how the clips went from stock footage to internet memes, check out the video above.

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