In an unsettled nation eager for diversion, news of the escape went viral. The Daily Mail posted video dispatches from the perimeter of the Alpha Genesis facility, while late-night hosts provided updates about the primates who had voted with their feet. On Saturday, Vance was interviewed by Pete Hegseth on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” which played a short clip of the breakout that Vance had captured with his phone. By the time he returned to work the next week, cop cars and news vans roamed the streets, as though an actual jailbreak had occurred. “I felt like I was in a Kafka story,” Vance told me, “where everything keeps getting more absurd.” The town’s resident graphic designer started printing T-shirts with a monkey above the slogan “STRAIGHT OUTTA YEMASSEE.” When they sold out in days, she expanded into coffee mugs and champagne flutes.