It is often impossible to track down the exact origins of slang terms.
Here's some speculation:
"From Chuck Labrensz:
Been trying to find out how the phrase apesh*t came about. Everybody
knows what it means, but no one can give any insight. Maybe it's just
innate?
It's something, that's certain. It is usually seen as go ape or go
apesh*t. Tony Thorne, compiler of slang terms, suggests that it
refers to a 'primal state' of infatuation, excitement, or anger, and
that explains its etymology. Going ape is rather primal, but going
ape AND defecating is extremely primal! Yet he may have overlooked a
known trait of certain primate species to throw feces when extremely
annoyed.
Thorne dates it to the late 1950s. To go ape was certainly in use by
then as Neil Sedaka used the term in his 1960 song 'I Go Ape'."
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