April 25, 2026
Planet of the takes
Desmond Morris, 98, Dies; Zoologist Saw Links Between Humans and Apes
Internet explodes over 'Naked Ape' legacy as zoologist dies at 98
TLDR: Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape, died at 98. Online, fans salute a gateway to science while critics slam dated gender claims and pop evolution talk—reigniting the big fight over how much of human behavior is biology versus culture, and why that debate still matters.
Desmond Morris, the zoologist who turned millions of living rooms into pop-anthropology class with his 1967 mega-hit “The Naked Ape,” has died at 98—and the internet instantly split into camps. On one side: nostalgic fans saying his TV shows and books were their gateway drug to science. On the other: critics rolling their eyes at what they call old-school “evolutionary psychology” and those eyebrow-raising lines about men having “playful brains” and women “youthful looks.” The result? A comment-section cage match.
In threads like this one, users are both eulogizing and auditing. Supporters argue he made hard ideas simple—like Carl Sagan, but for animal behavior. Skeptics counter that “simple” often meant simplistic, especially on gender and biology-vs-culture. His cheeky “to make sex sexier” quip got memed into oblivion, while someone crowned it “Planet of the Takes.” Meanwhile, another wave praised him for owning the controversy—he once called his book “deliberately insulting”—while opponents shot back: being provocative isn’t the same as being right.
Between the banana jokes, zoo puns, and earnest “he got me into biology” confessions, the strongest theme is a clash over legacy: trailblazing explainer or pop-science provocateur? Either way, 20 million copies later, Morris is still making humans argue about what they are—and that may be the most human thing of all.
Key Points
- •Desmond Morris, English zoologist and author of The Naked Ape, died at 98 near Dublin, at a hospital in Naas.
- •The Naked Ape (1967) sold over 20 million copies, was translated into 23 languages, and argued that human behavior reflects primate ancestry and ancient genes.
- •Morris produced more than four dozen books, 50 scientific papers, and 700 TV episodes, helping popularize animal behavior studies.
- •He presented evolutionary interpretations of human functions, including claims about sexual adaptations and human neoteny, and used a confrontational tone he called “deliberately insulting.”
- •His views provoked strong objections from lay readers and experts; his influence was compared to Carl Sagan’s in astronomy, and he hosted Zoo Time on Granada Television at the London Zoo.