mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
The caveman movie National Lampoon’s Homo Erectus will hit theaters in September. The sitcom based on the GEICO Caveman ads will premiere in October. But cavemen are nothing new to pop culture. A man (or woman) who resembles us but does not understand or fit in with the confusing modern world is a wonderful device for both comedy and adventure. These 12 cavemen and cavewomen are not ranked; who am I to rank cavemen? They are in chronological order.
1932 Alley Oop
The comic strip Alley Oop has been in news papers for 75 years, outliving two of his three illustrators. Oop is your everyday dinosaur-riding caveman who lives in the kingdom of Moo when he isn’t time-traveling to different eras of history. He was also the subject of a #1 pop hit by The Argyles.
1958 B.C.
B.C. is a comic strip by Johnny Hart, who died this past April. The strip will continue under the production of Hart’s daughter and grandson. B.C. was also the caveman character, playing straight man to all the silliness going on around him. The strip took on a religious theme in 1977, which led to some criticism and editorial rejection from some newspapers.
1960 Fred Flintstone
The Flintstones was the first prime-time animated TV series for adults. Original episodes aired from 1960-1966, and for many years after in reruns. Fred and his wife Wilma, and their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble were loosely based on the earlier sitcom The Honeymooners. Although the setting was a prehistoric age, the Flintstones had modern conveniences such as record players and telephones, which were powered by animals, or in the case of the automobile, “Fred’s two feet.”
1966 Loana
Loana is undoubtably the only character you remember from the 1966 movie One Million Years B.C. All it took was Raquel Welch in a leather bikini to make it a hit.
1977 Captain Caveman
Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, originally a segment of Scooby’s All-Star Laugh-A-Lympics, and its own series briefly in 1980. Afterwards, he appeared in The Flintstones Comedy Show. Captain Caveman was thawed from the ice by a group of teenagers and became a crime-fighting superhero with his caveman strength, ability to fly, and a magic club.
1980 Ayla
Ayla is the protagonist of the Earth Children series of books by Jean Aul, beginning with Clan of the Cave Bear. Ayla is a Cro Magnon who is orphaned at age five and taken in by a clan of Neanderthals. Ayla uses her inborn intelligence and psychic powers to domesticate animals, perform surgery, and invent fire, sewing, and the bra. The 1986 movie Clan of the Cave Bear starring Daryl Hannah was critically panned and a box office flop.
1981 Atouk
Ringo Starr played Atouk in the 1981 film Caveman. Not as big or fierce as the other cavemen, Atouk becomes an outcast from his tribe, and joins with other exiled cavemen to form a new tribe of misfits. However, the misfits use their brains to create fire and defeat dinosaurs, proving that brains trump brawn in the grand scheme of history. The plot foreshadows the later movie Revenge of the Nerds.
1982 Thag Simmons
Although Thag himself doesn’t appear in this 1982 Far Side panel by Gary Larsen, his legend lives on. Scientists have used the word “thagomizer” since at least 1993 to describe a dinosaur’s tail spikes. It’s now used in reference books and museum exhibits.
The late great Phil Hartman played Cirroc, the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer as a recurring character on Saturday Night Live. He spoke quite eloquently, but always fell back on his caveman background to relate to the jury as a common man.
1992 Link
Brendan Frasier played Link (the “missing link”) in the 1992 comedy Encino Man. Two California teenagers (Sean Astin and Pauly Shore) find a frozen caveman in their backyard and decide to take him to school, where he becomes quite popular. The reviews were awful, but it was nice to see Brendan Frasier in a loincloth.
2004 The GEICO Cavemen
GEICO Auto Insurance began running an advertising series with the line “so easy, a caveman could do it.” Cavemen who heard that line were offended and complained. Several other ads featuring the cavemen were produced, plus the internet sites Caveman’s Crib and Up With Cavemen. The TV series (entitled Cavemen) is scheduled to run on Tuesday nights beginning in October.
2007 Ishbo
Ishbo is the hero of National Lampoon’s Homo Erectus, which comes out in September. Played by Adam Rifkin, who also wrote and directed the film, Ishbo is smarter than the other cavemen, and carries a torch for a girl who prefers her men big, dumb, and strong.
Which caveman do you fancy the most?
You missed Yor, from the movie “Yor, Hunter of the Future.”
I saw it as a second feature at a drive-in sometime in the early 80’s. Even as a 10 year old, I knew that it was an incredibly stupid movie, and that is why I have remembered it all of these years.
posted by n2y2 on 7-31-2007 at 8:21 am
that caveman show is going to tank.
posted by katie on 7-31-2007 at 8:31 am
Well, I can tell you my LEAST favorite - can’t stand the GEICO Caveman commercials, don’t think I will like the TV show and better.
posted by JaneM on 7-31-2007 at 8:58 am
I really hope that new Caveman sitcom goes away quickly this fall…ugh, indeed…
hey, what about the Quest for Fire movie? wasn’t that about caveman getting busy with Rae Dawn Chong?
posted by donner on 7-31-2007 at 9:15 am
For those die-hard B.C. fans that must be out there, Endicott, NY, is where Mr. Hart lived, worked, and died. As a point of pride, B.C. images can be found all over Broome County marketing. Most notably, the Binghamton (town next door to Endicott and seat of the county) city buses have the B.C. caveman riding on a stone wheel as their mascot.
posted by Cynthia on 7-31-2007 at 10:10 am
Don’t forget the Slag Brothers (Rock & Gravel)in the Bouldermobile 01 from the Hanna Barbera cartoon “Wacky Races”.
link –>
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SlagBrothers.jpg
Maybe I am showing my age…
posted by Sid Morrison on 7-31-2007 at 12:45 pm
Re: the Geico cavemen, et al…
I, too, hope both the TV show and the movie tank. Racism at it’s most insiduous.
I am amused by the commercial’s caveman inability to discern proportions - “Four by five” is not the correct ratio of the poster - and his existential angst.
Also, in news articles and film promos I have seen recently on CNN and AP, the producers claim he is a cro-magnon. WE are cro-magnon, he is a hollywood stereotype of a neanderthal, and not a very good one. The wonders of contemporary public education
Ptah! Another example of ignorance and the cultural and intellectual bankruptcy of contemporary “entertainment”.
posted by Doc on 7-31-2007 at 12:46 pm
@n2y2:
Hey! I was the other person that saw that horrid, horrid waste of film (Yor!)
Glad to have finally caught up with you…
Still trying to figure out who the laughing wizard guy was…
posted by Ed Hands on 7-31-2007 at 1:35 pm
From 1966-67 there was a sitcom called “It’s About Time” starring Imogene Coca as a cavewoman and Joe E. Ross as ( I think) an astronaut who crash landed. He had to deal with her hilarious primitive ways. When I was ten years old, it was great.
posted by Karen on 8-1-2007 at 5:06 am
What about Lothar of the Hill People?
posted by Tim on 8-1-2007 at 11:38 am
The Geico “Caveman” is certainly not a cave dweller when we see him in his luxurious condo. Also, “So easy a therapist can do it” is in no way similar to “So easy a caveman can do it” because you need a degree and a certain amount of education to be a therapist, to be a caveman you need only live in a cave, which this guy doesn’t. The slogan should really be, “So easy ugly people can do it.” That way, they can get offended all they want, and we just won’t care, because they’re ugly.
posted by Lorenzo on 8-1-2007 at 6:31 pm
I LOVED “It’s About Time”!!!!! And my parents, I’m guessing, suffered through it for my sake! “It’s about time, it’s about space! It’s about the dawn of the human race!”
posted by sofiya on 8-3-2007 at 6:37 am
What about Cha-Ka from Land of the Lost? It was a staple in our Saturday morning line-up in our house when I was growing up. Now that I think of it, maybe remembering a show that old makes ME a caveperson, too!
posted by Angie on 8-3-2007 at 7:49 am
People, people, why all the hate? So much negative energy you’re sending to the not even yet seen Cavemen sit-com?? I, for one would rather test view HUNDREDS of these type rather than watch 1 more stupid, vapid reality bombers. I see people at their worst all day. Why would I want to come home and watch them on t.v.???? Sign me the probably 1 of 6 proud people in America who never watched a full epidsode of Survivor!
posted by Connie on 8-6-2007 at 10:24 am
Land of the Lost, now that was good television! I used to hav nightmares about sleestaks, and A big crush on Holly!
Thanks for the memory Angie ;)
posted by Tony on 8-21-2007 at 4:43 pm
Lothar wasn’t really a caveperson. He was more like a peasant during medieval times.
posted by Jill on 8-21-2007 at 6:00 pm
Does anyone remember a television show in the sixties (Oops, my age is showing) called “Its About Time”? It was a comedy about some astronauts who time traveled back to the days of cavemen. Then later, they brought the cavemen back to the future.
I was a kid and barely remember it.
posted by Joseph Pinaud on 8-24-2007 at 12:45 pm
Sure, I remember that one! You can see a clip at TV Party.
www.tvparty. com/recits.html
posted by Miss Cellania on 8-24-2007 at 1:00 pm
Thank you for bringing up “It’s About Time”; I was going crazy at work today trying to remember the name of that show. None of my coworkers believed me when I described a caveman sitcom from the 1960’s. (They insinuated I was delusional.) I don’t remember a lot, but wasn’t the father’s name Grunk?
posted by Kat on 8-31-2007 at 7:32 pm
you guys forgot about david ortiz and manny ramirez. though to be dubbed as human beings from the dominican republic, these creatures were actually proven to be cavemen with remarkable athletic skills.
posted by Michael on 9-4-2007 at 12:31 pm
The hilarious 1960s Brit movie “Carry On Cleo” had a main character, Hengist Pod, a neolithic who invented the square wheel. Also, Joan Crawford’s final movie, “Trog”, was a pathetically serious story about an unfrozen and reanimated troglodyte (look it up) named “Trog”, and Ms. Crawford a scientist dedicated to teaching it etiquette.
posted by James on 9-4-2007 at 2:26 pm
And i hate those Geico cavemen commercials. What makes them qualify as cavemen other than being butt-ugly?
posted by James on 9-4-2007 at 2:38 pm
How could you forget Robert Vaughn (pre-”Man From U.N.C.L.E.”), in “I Was A Teenage Caveman”?!
posted by Marilyn on 9-5-2007 at 2:12 am
1981 Ringo et all.
great movie. thenagian the 80’s rocked. (except day time TV, and Ronnie RayGun. oh wait they were one and the same.)
posted by damon on 10-15-2007 at 11:40 pm