Cartoon Network’s “Evolution” short is what happens when you take billions of years of science, cram it into 30 seconds, and sprinkle in just enough chaos to make Darwin roll his eyes. It starts with a blob in a puddle, adds some random legs, and before you know it, dinosaurs are popping and locking, fish are zooming around on scooters, and monkeys are slapping on ties and joining corporate America. It’s less “origin of species” and more “what if evolution happened during a sugar rush?”
Let’s be clear: the timeline here is laughably bad. Did monkeys really leap straight into capitalism? Probably not, but honestly, would you be that surprised if they did? Somehow, in all its absurdity, “Evolution” captures the truth about life: it’s chaotic, messy, and more than a little ridiculous. Watching this short feels like flipping through a biology textbook that’s been hit with a dose of Cartoon Network energy—and honestly, I’d rather watch this than sit through another boring science lecture with bad PowerPoint slides.
The animation is pure, glorious mayhem. It’s fast, it’s colorful, and it refuses to make sense in the best way possible. One second you’re watching blobs turn into dinosaurs, and the next, humans are marching to work with briefcases like evolution was just capitalism’s warm-up act. It’s not accurate, but it’s entertaining—and let’s face it, that’s what we all came here for.
Ultimately, “Evolution” doesn’t try to teach you anything, and that’s exactly why it works. It’s a 30-second reminder that life is absurd and sometimes the best way to appreciate it is to laugh at it. Darwin might not approve of the science, but I like to think he’d appreciate the humor. After all, nothing says “survival of the fittest” like a scooter-riding fish.
