History Main / ParodyOfEvolution

** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1697 This]] strip parodies this by making it circular -- at the last step, the human nukes himself back to the four-legged shrew-creature stage.
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Considering what we now know of ''Ardipithecus ramidus'', this trope is an example of ScienceMarchesOn; chimpanzees and gorillas probably developed knuckle-walking after their genetic split from human beings.

* ''Manga/HaventYouHeardImSakamoto'' has the titular character do this as a ''run'' in physical education. His aim was to run in the ideal way each of the evolutions would run in, then devolve back into the oldest and loop until he was done. And despite this nonsense he ''still'' runs faster than most kids.

* The cover of ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' #238. The most short and simian version of Alfred E. Neuman has a thought bubble saying, "What... me furry?"
* The first comic book based on ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroaches'' has a segment wherein Oggy goes from shaggy sabre-toothed quadruped to his modern-day appearance. For added laughs, partway through, he smells food and searches for it, ultimately leading him to a fridge.
* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' did this, going from monkey to hunched ape-man to neanderthal to seven-foot-tall muscular [[LanternJawOfJustice giant-jawed]] shaved ComicBook/{{Rahan}}-type man to short wimpy BobFromAccounting-looking guy [[ThisLoserIsYou waiting at the bus stop.]]
** Creator/GaryLarson also presented us with the evolution of the stickman.
* An installment of Paul Kirchner's surreal comic strip ''The Bus'' shows a series of creatures, from monkey to caveman, boarding a bus. The caveman stops to politely allow the main character (a balding office-worker type) to board before him.

[[AC:Film - Animated]]
* Seen in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge1'', with Sid the Sloth as the apex.
* The movie poster for ''WesternAnimation/TheCroodsANewAge'' shows the cast of the original movie in order from least to most erect coming face to face with the fully upright Bettermans.

* The [[http://www.impawards.com/2003/posters/dumb_and_dumberer.jpg one-sheet]] of ''Film/DumbAndDumberer''.
* The poster for ''Film/EncinoMan''.
* One of the posters for ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes'', [[http://planetoftheapes.wikia.com/wiki/File:544991-rise_of_the_planet_of_the_apes_poster_05.jpg "Evolution Becomes Revolution,"]] which has ''Homo sapiens'' held on a leash by a brutish gun-toting ape.
* Played for drama in ''Film/TheTitan'' when the wife of a volunteer test subject (for a project to genetically modify humans so they can live on Titan) breaks into the scientist's office and finds this picture, with a note at the end saying: ''Homo Titanien''.

* Most covers for Website/DarwinAwards books have spoofs on this concept, usually with the "evolved" man suffering a comically fatal injury like being [[AnvilOnHead crushed under a safe]] or falling off a cliff.
* The inside front cover of ''Radio/TheNowShow Book Of Records'' shows Jon Holmes as hunched ape-man, Steve Punt as neanderthal and Hugh Dennis as modern man. The inside back cover shows them in reverse (obviously, Dennis has to hunch a lot more than Holmes does).
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid: Old School'': Greg illustrates how humans have come to depend on the comforts of modern life with a parody of "The March of Progress", in which the upright-walking human is followed by Greg wrapped in a blanket playing video games.

** Mentioned in ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' where the picture is compared to someone getting out of bed in the morning. The wizards who are looking at the picture state that the ape/human's main achievement is getting from one side of the page to the other without showing any genitalia.
* The cover of ''Unnatural Selection'' by Katrina van Grouw, a book about how human breeders shape animals, shows a series of skeletons documenting the development of the common duck into the more upright Indian Runner Duck. The picture is called "Ascent of Mallard".

* On an episode of ''Series/MockTheWeek'', while the players were standing around waiting for "Scenes We'd Like To See" to start, Frankie Boyle, Hugh Dennis and Greg Davies reenacted the picture. Frankie (the shortest) was completely hunched over at the back, while the incredibly tall Greg was at the front.
* The two "Myth Evolution" episodes of ''Series/MythBusters'' used a cartoon of this on the initial blueprint shot.
* ''Series/{{Caprica}}''. The "Evolution of a Cylon" poster starts with a [[VisualPun kitchen toaster]] and ends with Caprica Six.
* One game on ''Series/ImpracticalJokers'' puts Q in the "March of Progress" at one step below modern man.

* The Music/{{Supertramp}} album cover for ''Brother Where You Bound'' is a multi-colored straight example, but the inside artwork shows an AbbeyRoadCrossing pose by the members of the band, all not too dissimilar to how the "man" figure is walking.

* ''Not Any Older'', The second album by the Buffalo NY indie rock band The Press Tones, features this progression on the cover, with the final man carrying a Press Tones guitar case and approaching a mic.

* In [[{{Theatre/Tsukiuta}} Kurenai Enishi]], one of the HarpoDoesSomethingFunny moments happens when the members of Procella have been captured by ninja, and as they're lined up in the back of the stage, about to be taken into the dungeon... well, it's these dorks, so they can't pass up the opportunity to do silly poses. In one performance, they did these poses.

* One of the images shown when you complete the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Melee'' single-player mode with Franchise/DonkeyKong is four progressively larger [=DKs=] and one [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus]] arranged like this.
* A common piece of graffiti in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' shows the usual, three part progression; but a fourth part shows a human-turned-combine that looks much like the second part.
* The first ''VideoGame/Splatoon1'' depicts this in [[spoiler:Sunken Scroll #10, with a squid gradually evolving into an Inkling, after [[AfterTheEnd humanity was washed away 12,000 years prior to the game]].]]
* ''VideoGame/WarioWareTwisted'': One of Kat & Ana's microgames, "Survival of the Quickest," begins with the ape on the far left and has you button-mash A to create more transitional images until you reach the human at the end. The medium-difficulty version features a dog turning into an anthropomorphic dog, and the hard-difficulty version begins with the monkey as usual, but it becomes a robot monkey instead of a human.

* Used in [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1697 this]] ''WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' strip, (and [[http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=SMBC-WOOH&Category_Code=SMBC-SHIRTS shirt.)]] [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2306#comic Again here.]]

* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'''s #14 [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_388_27-science-lessons-as-taught-by-famous-video-games/ Science Lesson As Taught by Famous Video Games]] has [[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_388_27-science-lessons-as-taught-by-famous-video-games_p27/#14 an allusion]] to "March of Progress" done with game sprites from successive console generations.
* In ''[[WebVideo/GameTheory The SCIENCE!]]'' episode "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhF0sYqpFJ4 No Cowboy is Safe! Red Dead's Biggest THREAT!]]" (a review on ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2''), Austin Hourigan uses Zallinger's "March of Progress" to describe the evolution of tuberculosis, placing a TB cell on top of a head of each creature in human evolution, ending with the current ''Homo sapiens'' itself.

* The title card of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents'' has this, with the last person as Mr. Crocker.
* The "[[http://pool.theinfosphere.org/images/6/6d/Ascent_of_Bot.jpg Ascent of Bot]]" from the {{WesternAnimation/Futurama}} episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS6E9AClockworkOrigin A Clockwork Origin]]".

* [[http://www.portallos.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/toki.jpg This picture]] about the HD remake of arcade classic ''VideoGame/{{Toki}}''.
* A caricature parodying evolution in the different parts of the world, depicts Evolution in Korea using the original sequence, but including a [[VideoGame/StarCraft Hydralisk]] at the end.
** The same is done for Japan, but the Hydralisk is replaced with a Franchise/{{Gundam}}

* A FunTShirt (worn by one of the sign-holders in Music/MitchBenn's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3q2iZuU5WM Proud of the BBC]]" video - appropriately enough the one holding the sign for ''Series/TheAscentOfMan'') has the line of protohumans [[AbbeyRoadCrossing on the Abbey Road zebra crossing]].
* [[{{Transhuman}} Transhumanists]], fans of the famous futurist Ray Kurzweil and other supporters of [[TheSingularity the technological singularity]] are often seen wearing shirts with a cyborg or robot coming after the upright human as the next logical step in evolution of mankind will be likely deliberate and a result of humans augmenting themselves with artificial biological and technological components.

* As shown in [[http://www.lab-initio.com/screen_res/nz003.jpg this]] ''Lab Initio''.

* ''ComicBook/GarfieldHis9Lives'' used this in the first chapter.
* In ''Comicbook/HowardTheDuck'', Phil Blumburtt presents a series of still images of the evolution of sapient ducks as a theory of Howard's origin; [[ArtisticLicenseBiology the first image is an egg]].

[[AC:{{Music}}]]
* The MusicVideo for Music/FatboySlim's "Right Here, Right Now".

* ''Theatre/TheAddingMachine'' has a version of this in dialogue, when Charles is telling Mr. Zero what his forthcoming {{reincarnation}} means in terms of the evolutionary process:
-->"For millions of years the nebulous gases swirled in space. For more millions of years the gases cooled and then through inconceivable ages they hardened into rocks. And then came life. Floating green things on the waters that covered the earth. More millions of years and a step upward--an animate organism in the ancient slime. And so on--step by step, down through the ages--a gain here, a gain there--the mollusk, the fish, the reptile, then mammal, man! And all so that you might sit in the gallery of a coal mine and operate the super-hyper-adding machine with the great toe of your right foot!"

%%* Seen in credit roll for ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII''.
* One of the glitched creatures you can catch in the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' will result in a [[http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/BreakingBlue/Update%2003/index.html series of impossible evolutions]].

* One version of [[http://tasvideos.org/879M.html Humans]] had an intro scene that animated evolution among the various pre-human periods. The penultimate was a tall, large creature wearing sneakers, pants, and a shirt, and took a bite from an apple in a tree. This form then morphs into a human.

* Used very, very strangely in ''WesternAnimation/OggyAndTheCockroachesTheMovie''. In the intro, Oggy evolves from a microbe into a cat. The problem? He evolved straight from [[ArtisticLicenseBiology a fish into a cat]]. However, the earlier segments are somewhat more accurate, which he evolved into a ''[[FridgeBrilliance Pikaia]]'' [[ShownTheirWork (?) and then an early fish]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' did it on the season 18 episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E16Homerazzi Homerazzi]]" [[note]]The one where Homer becomes a paparazzo after one of the staged family pictures Marge takes has Duffman cheating on his gay lover with Boobarella[[/note]] parodies this (showing Homer as a single-celled organism and progressing through many pre-historic and historic eras until he enters the present and comes home to Marge, who asks him, "What took you so long?" [[note]]On at least one version, the line was replaced with, "Did you bring home any milk?"[[/note]]) in what is now considered the longest (and, in some viewers' eyes, the most epic) CouchGag to date.
* The WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}} television [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpivIYJFjd4 intro]] shows a full version, from microscopic life, to proto-dinosaur walking out of the water, ending in Dilbert himself. All of which are wearing his trademark glasses
* An animation short mixed the two, showing primates evolving into men in the exact position as the March of Progress image, only to revert to a hunched-over Three-point Football stance.
* Done beautifully (without parody) in ''WesternAnimation/AllegroNonTroppo'' in one section. Set to ''[[Music/MauriceRavel Bolero]]'', it starts with a coke bottle.

* The fossil section of the museum in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'' manages a less-used variant based on [[SlidingScaleOfAnimalCast the presence of many humanoid animals in the setting]]. Guidelines on the floor trace the prehistory of evolution from the Paleozoic (first room) to the Mesozoic (second room) and finally the Cenozoic (final room). In that final room, the various evolutionary lines lead upward to a series of silhouettes based off many of the various animal villager types it's possible to get, with an empty spot for humans on the right (allowing for a photo op for your villager or any visitors to the island).

* Done beautifully (without parody) in [[WesternAnimation/AllegroNonTroppo Allegro non Troppo]] in one section. Set to [[Music/MauriceRavel Bolero]], it starts with a coke bottle.

* Gutsick Gibbon uses a tongue-in-cheek parody of the March of Progress in the opening animation of many of her videos, with Altialasius morphing into Notharctus and progressively more modern primates. It's intended as an "Of course we know this isn't how it happened" parody.

* Gutsick Gibbon uses a tongue-in-cheek parody of the March of Progress in the opening animation of many of her videos, with Altialasius morphing into Notharctus and progressively more modern primates. It's intended as an "Of course we know this isn't how it happened" parody.

* One of Kat & Ana's microgames in ''VideoGame/WarioWare: Twisted!'', "Survival of the Quickest," begins with the ape on the far left and has you button-mash A to create more transitional images until you reach the human at the end. The medium-difficulty version features a dog turning into an anthropomorphic dog, and the hard-difficulty version begins with the monkey as usual, but it becomes a robot monkey instead of a human.

* Used in [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1697 this]] ''WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' strip, (and [[http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=SMBC-WOOH&Category_Code=SMBC-SHIRTS shirt.)]]
** [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2306#comic Again here.]]

* [[http://www.portallos.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/toki.jpg This picture]] about the HD remake of arcade classic ''VideoGame/{{Toki}}'' (that ended up [[{{Vaporware}} not being made]]).

* Seen in ''WesternAnimation/IceAge'', with Sid the Sloth as the apex.