# Geico Cavemen = Black Peps? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 27, 2007, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317 "2007-07-27T02:08:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![conway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/21 "2007-07-27T20:20:16Z")
[QUOTE=Borborygmi] _Hi, Caveman, what’s your name?_ He doesn’t say anything cause he’s a coffee-infused cola drink. [/QUOTE] I think that may be better than the actual show. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/22 "2007-07-27T20:40:27Z")
Blacks ALWAYS get all the credit. I think they are supposed to represent hispanic’s gods damn it! Ok, no…I didn’t really think they were tied into any race at all to be honest. They certainly don’t LOOK black (or hispanic)…they look more like, well, Europeans. 😉 -XT (I agree with others saying that this looks like someone who is trying to make an issue where none exists. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the irony, considering the subject of the commercials, is pretty much off the scales…) ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/23 "2007-07-27T20:57:38Z")
Why AREN’T there any black cavemen, though? I don’t rememeber seeing one goddamn black cavemen character the whole time I grew up watching the Flintstones or Captain Caveman. Is this an industry-wide conspiracy or the simple conniving racism of Hanna-Barbera? Wait… those are JEWISH names. Why I oughta… Wait. It’s my mother. I’ll put her on speaker. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/24 "2007-07-27T21:47:16Z")
Those guy’s aren’t Cro-Magnons. Cro-Magnons are fully modern Homo sapiens. If they’re anything they’re supposed to be Neadertals. It’s pretty likely that Neadertals had pale skin since they were adapted for a northern climate. But as for their other soft tissue features, there’s no telling. And of course, it’s also very likely that the first fully modern Homo sapiens had dark skin, since they originated in Africa. So the primitive Neadertals should be white, while the advanced Cro-Magnons should be black. Except they probably wouldn’t read as either to modern eyes, but belong to “races” that simply don’t exist any more. Neandertals were simply off the modern human scale in terms of race, and wouldn’t “look” european any more than a really dark southern Indian guy looks like a sub-saharan african except that they both have dark skin. And while Cro-Magnons were ancestral to modern Europeans they probably didn’t look exactly like modern Europeans, just like modern Native American populations don’t look exactly like modern Asians, even though they moved from Asia 10-20 thousand years ago. Back to Neandertals, I have a suspicion that their hair patterns and facial hair would likely also be way off the scale. Lots of primate species have funny beards and moustaches and tufts of colored facial hair, and these vary widely even–or especially–between closely related species. And the theory is that these hair tufts are species markers, that evolved through sexual selection to decrease the likelyhood of interbreeding between closely related species. So Neandertals might very well have had odd soft tissue facial features and hair that we would find bizarre and disgusting, and vice-versa. ---
**Author:** ![pizzabrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e9c0ed/32.png) [@pizzabrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pizzabrat)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/25 "2007-07-27T22:09:58Z")
Or just early Homo sapiens. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/26 "2007-07-28T02:14:12Z")
Early? Sorry, hey I can come back later. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/27 "2007-07-28T02:42:30Z")
[QUOTE=pizzabrat] Or just early Homo sapiens. [/QUOTE] If they showed _Homo Erectus_, the show would be canceled for sure. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/28 "2007-07-28T08:00:11Z")
[QUOTE=Operation Ripper] [Quote=Originally Posted by Exapno Mapcase] Geico Cavemen = Black Peps? Black Peps? What am I missing? [/quote] hehehehe, the last 10 years or so? [/QUOTE] The last 10 years, when, apparently, people forgot how to spell. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2007, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/29 "2007-07-28T08:05:23Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Lance Murdoch] Geico Cavemen = Canceled before Halloween [/QUOTE] I’m guessing the pilot episode features some sort of shark, with someone perhaps doing some sort of jumping in the vicinity of said shark. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/30 "2007-07-29T20:21:00Z")
[QUOTE=lowbrass] The last 10 years, when, apparently, people forgot how to spell. [/QUOTE] You are calling me on the spelling of “teh?” Hehehe. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/31 "2007-07-29T22:55:31Z")
[QUOTE=Askia] Is this an industry-wide conspiracy or the simple conniving racism of Hanna-Barbera? Wait… those are JEWISH names. Why I oughta… [/QUOTE] Actually, both Hanna and Barbera were Lebanese. So they must be Middle Eastern Jews. Or something. ---
**Author:** ![lowbrass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dc4da7/32.png) [@lowbrass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lowbrass)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/32 "2007-07-30T01:24:19Z")
[QUOTE=Askia] Why AREN’T there any black cavemen, though? I don’t rememeber seeing one goddamn black cavemen character the whole time I grew up watching the Flintstones or Captain Caveman. Is this an industry-wide conspiracy or the simple conniving racism of Hanna-Barbera? Wait… those are JEWISH names. Why I oughta… Wait. It’s my mother. I’ll put her on speaker. [/QUOTE] There was a brown ink shortage in the '70s, and they needed it all for _The Cosby Kids_ and _The Jackson Five_. ---
**Author:** ![Operation\_Ripper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/34f0e0/32.png) [@Operation\_Ripper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Operation_Ripper)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/33 "2007-07-30T03:58:04Z")
Well, here’s a black cavewoman, that count? [Rae Dawn Chong in Quest For Fire.](http://www.themakeupgallery.info/weird/paint/qff.htm) ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/34 "2007-07-30T05:22:34Z")
> [@](#): > > _from the OP link_ > > The producers said the characters’ creative potential and their “fish-out-of-water experience” was only touched on in the commercial spots. You know, I always thought that the point of the GEICO Cavemen was that they WEREN’T ‘fish-out-of-water’, but that the rest of society assumed that they WERE. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/35 "2007-07-30T20:19:34Z")
This show is going to be painful for the five minutes it lasts. Racial parallels will be observed and comparisons made, and it will die a quick, merciful death. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/36 "2007-07-30T20:28:46Z")
[QUOTE=Operation Ripper] Well, here’s a black cavewoman, that count? [Rae Dawn Chong in Quest For Fire.](http://www.themakeupgallery.info/weird/paint/qff.htm) [/QUOTE] I’ve never heard Rae Dawn Chong described as “black” before. She’s African-American/Amerindian/Scottish-Irish/Chinese-Canadian. She’s “black” the way a CockaPomaPoo dog is a poodle. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/37 "2007-07-30T21:36:25Z")
[QUOTE=DrFidelius] I think they are only “passing” as cavemen. Watching the “Party Balcony” commercial last night, I am more convinced than ever that they are wolfmen. [/QUOTE] That’s the end of season one cliff-hanger…if it makes it that long. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/38 "2007-07-30T21:42:08Z")
[QUOTE=Operation Ripper] You are calling me on the spelling of “teh?” Hehehe. [/QUOTE] Any chance you’re going to answer the question? Did you write “Peps” when you meant to write “Peeps”? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/39 "2007-07-30T21:46:26Z")
I always love it when people who haven’t seen one frame of a particular upcoming TV series are criticizing it and making predictions on its demise. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317/40 "2007-07-31T00:48:03Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] I always love it when people who haven’t seen one frame of a particular upcoming TV series are criticizing it and making predictions on its demise. [/QUOTE] Nowadays there’s a LOT of TV that goes by without me seeing it…and with very few exceptions, they all go away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geico-cavemen-black-peps/413317.md?page=3)