Since I invariably wind up getting "name suits" types of comments, here's the explanation behind it:
Around the turn of the millennium, I was trying to come up with a username to use on a particular site that had a shortish character count limit for usernames. My goal was something related to the fact that I would often be making my points in arguments with "holier-than-thou" types by taking what they were saying, and turning it on its head so the offensive stuff was directed back at them.
I also happened to learn shortly beforehand that many years ago "'ape" was somewhat commonly used as a verb to mean "imitate" or "copy."
I'm sure you can figure the rest out.
Most of that was actually on the better end of what little I've seen (my spouse was into it, so I was exposed by proxy).