Amy Poehler 'started screaming' after a run in with a chimpanzee at 'SNL'

The old Hollywood adage to never work with children or animals turned out to be true for Amy Poehler.

The “Parks and Recreation” star recounted a terrifying incident from her time on “SNL” when she had to work with a chimpanzee, named Mikey, on set.

"One time I was doing a sketch where I think Jason Bateman was the host and there was a monkey in the sketch...” she recalled. "I don't like them. It's too stressful for me. And it was a young chimpanzee.”

She continued, "I walked past the chimpanzee and it reached out and grabbed me by the wrist and wouldn't let go in the middle of a quick change. I think it was the blonde hair or my vibe. And I started screaming. And chimpanzees are very strong. I couldn't get it to let go of me."

Fortunately for Amy, "it was all fine" eventually.

Amy made a brief appearance as Sharon Stone in 2005 sketch “Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities,” which featured Jason Bateman as an eccentric TV host who tricked Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond) into sitting for an interview which ended with a chimp throwing excrement at him.

And when he returned to host SNL in 2020, the “Ozark” star recalled how Mikey "tried to kill" him and bit his face.

He said, "Things were so loose that at the end of the show, at goodnights, the monkey was allowed to take a bow with us up here.”

"We're all hugging, we're saying goodnight, the credits are rolling, and then the monkey tried to kill me,” he said. “Truly, I bent down to say, 'Good job' to the monkey. You know, bein' nice. I'm a nice fella. But not the chimp. The chimp unhinges his jaw, he flashes the teeth, and he tries to bite my entire nose off.”

Bateman continued, "Apparently this is a thing with chimps, I guess. They hate that humans have faces, and they wanna remove them. I don't know. Maybe he got a good look at this nose and thought I wasn't gonna miss half of it."

But Jason was stunned to learn the chimp "wanted to apologize" afterwards and seemed to show genuine remorse.

"I survived, and after the show, I was told by the animal handlers that Mikey, the monkey, wanted to apologize, truly. My first thought was that this is a trap, he wants more, he's still snacky. But I decided that everyone deserves a second chance."

Of visiting Mikey in his dressing room after the show, he added, "He's looking very ashamed of himself, and honest to God, he shuffles over to me, puts his hand up on my shoulder, as if to say, 'I'm sorry.' It was a very, very beautiful moment. It was a connection between man and nature that I will never, ever, ever forget."

He then jokingly added, "The monkey was destroyed later that night. It was my choice. Lessons have to be learned. But I would like to think that if he was here with us tonight to see me host 15 years later, he would probably rip my nuts off.”