Popularity and celebrity collectors Bored Apes have been documented by the media as one of the more prominent NFTs. In December 2021, the Bored Ape Yacht Club overtook
CryptoPunks as the highest-priced NFTs. Bored Apes, along with other character-based NFTs, would become "a status symbol for owners who regularly use their animated creatures as avatars on social media". Many Bored Ape
NFT owners admitted to purchasing their Apes due to the potential marketing and branding projects that can be launched through owning the intellectual property of a Bored Ape NFT. In November 2021,
Rolling Stone released Bored Ape magazine covers as an NFT magazine.
Universal Music Group has signed a band composed of three Bored Apes and one Mutant Ape. Companies were also noted to purchase Bored Ape NFTs;
Adidas bought one in September 2021. Many online media publications wrote about celebrities collecting Bored Apes in late 2021 and early 2022;
Eminem,
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Shaquille O'Neal,
Neymar,
Snoop Dogg,
Mark Cuban,
Post Malone,
Stephen Curry,
Paris Hilton,
Jimmy Fallon, and
Serena Williams are among various celebrities noted to have purchased Bored Apes. In some cases of celebrities owning Bored Ape NFTs, such as with
Justin Bieber, it has been reported that the actual purchase of the NFT may not have been made by the celebrity themselves. Bored Ape Yacht Club holds hosted events in New York, California, Hong Kong, and the UK for its owners. In November 2021, the company held a yacht party and a performance featuring
Chris Rock,
Aziz Ansari, and
The Strokes as part of an entertainment weekend in New York;
Artistic merits and criticism The Bored Ape NFTs have attracted a considerable amount of negative reception, with many detractors of BAYC having opined that the NFTs have had a negative impact on artists. Writing for
The Cut, Claire Lampen commented, "I find the monkey mostly unremarkable, generically familiar, and not very much to my liking if not wholly offensive," and added that "[celebrities] really want us to enjoy this monkey, clap for this monkey, know what this monkey is. They can't make me. I won't let them." Writing for the publication, Kate Knibbs wrote negatively of Bored Apes, and contrasted it to
Comedian, a 2019 artwork by
Maurizio Cattelan of a banana duct taped to a wall, where the buyer received instructions for recreating the artwork rather than an actual banana: The Bored Ape Yacht Club, in contrast, is a grimmer kind of gimmick, one that parodies nothing. It uses certificates of authenticity, too, but with a crucial difference in intent. The certificate points back to a commodity, not an idea. It doesn't mock or even question the art world; instead it simply cashes in on it. The project's sense of humor is akin to a decal of Calvin from
Calvin & Hobbes taking a piss. The crudeness is the point. Each ape is a misprized thing, bought and sold constantly. Each episode was accompanied by the sale of 333 NFTs, while each of the episodes were themselves made into NFTs. It was executive produced by American rapper
2 Chainz. Matthew Gault of
Vice wrote of its first episode, "It sucks. The animation is bad, the writing terrible, and the voice acting atrocious."
Allegations of racism The anthropomorphized ape cartoons within the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection have been accused of racism. According to researchers from the
Anti-Defamation League, the allegations of racism are doubtful, but certain traits within the images, such as "Hip-Hop", can be seen as problematic. Record executive
Damon Dash, and
8chan founder
Fredrick Brennan have stated that they believe Bored Ape Yacht Club looks racist. The founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club adamantly deny these allegations, stating that they are a diverse group of Turkish, Cuban and Jewish friends, some of whom have voted for
Bernie Sanders and that they chose apes as the focus of the collection because of the common term "aping in". == Controversies ==