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This short chapter opens with a scene set in 1911, in which Antarctic explorers from throughout the British Empire listen to a recording of the era’s most famous cave man in their hut near the South Pole. This demonstrates how the cave man had been insinuated into global popular culture. The introduction then briefly sketches the character’s genesis, noting the importance of popular evolutionary theories and especially Charles Darwin, the role played by the cartoonist Edward Tennyson ‘E.T.’ Reed and the international influence of his drawings. The use of the term ‘cave man’ to refer to these ancient humans is discussed as are issues surrounding gender and race. Finally, a short note about primary sources discusses how digitisation and searchable databases have revolutionised the ways in which popular culture can be explored, reconstructed and understood.

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Cave men are among the most widely recognised characters in global popular culture. They look like modern humans and inhabit a humorously archaic, but scientifically invalid version of the contemporary world. They battle dinosaurs, use comic technology like foot-powered cars, and drag women by the hair. This illustrated book is the first systematic investigation of the character’s evolution from pre-modern freak shows and fascinations with apes, to mid-nineteenth century evidence of dinosaurs, ancient hominids and evolution. Suddenly, long-held scientific and religious beliefs came into question, provoking public debates that inspired British satirical magazines, performers in the emerging entertainment industry, writers and eventually filmmakers and television companies. Ancient hominids were first depicted as explicitly simian and threatening, though by the end of the century the familiar, modern cave man had emerged. Humour has always been the most common tone for evoking human prehistory, because it allowed unsettling subjects to be addressed indirectly. As evolutionary ideas became more acceptable and Europe’s ancient past became better known, cartoonists began using prehistory to satirise contemporary middle-class Britain. Their cave men looked like the male, Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of that world, while the situations they depicted affirmed Victorian ideas about race, gender, nation and empire. This British cave man travelled throughout the English-speaking world, establishing the broad parameters within which our earliest ancestors continue to be depicted in popular culture.