I’ve been avoiding running these particular cartoons within Tigwissel Tuesdays‘s general mandate of reviewing comics parodying science, but given that the Anti-Science Party (also known as Republicans) is holding its national convention this week, I felt what better time to honor the G.O.P.’s 19th Century ideas, than with cartoons from the 19th Century making fun of
Charles Darwin and his now thoroughly and repeatedly proven Theory of Evolution.

Evolution then being a new and highly controversial theory (and, at the time, whose supporting evidence was just emerging, as opposed to the enormous and overwhelming body of supporting proofs that has since been uncovered) meant that at this early stage, most cartoons involving Evolution directly or indirectly made fun of it. The further fact that the Theory of Evolution (or more accurately stated, the general public’s inaccurate understanding of it), all but invited cartoonists to depict men as monkeys, and monkeys as men, guaranteed that the number of cartoons aimed at, or making use of, Evolution, would be great.

Above, from the November 16th, 1872 issue of Fun magazine, we have artist John Tenniel‘s “That Troubles our Monkey Again”, depicting Darwin as a monkey with a human head.

Click on the above & below pictures, to view the cartoons in greater detail.

Below, from the front page of the January 9th, 1875 edition of the (New York) Daily Graphic, comes “A Lecture Without Words; Singular Effect of Optical Laws on our Darwinian Professor.”

Above, from the 1882 Punch’s Almanack, is artist Linley Sambourne‘s satirical “Man is But a Worm”.

Below, in Mr. Pongo on “The Situation”, Tenniel and Fun magazine again (September 12th, 1877) uses Evolution, this time combined with London gorilla sensation Mr. Pongo, to comment that if the Development of Man leads to war, conflict, and scandal (the latter the headline in the newspaper Pongo is shown holding), then, Pongo is glad his species didn’t follow Man’s path.

Doug Wheeler

ElectionComics