Jocko Homo

Jocko Homo began as one of Mark Mothersbaugh's first compositions for the group, demoed in 1974. The title comes from Jocko-Homo Heavenbound, a 1924 anti-evolution tract by Bertram Henry Shadduck in which the term means ape-man. The verses take on de-evolution, and the bridge, God made man, but he used the monkey to do it, answers Uncle Dave Macon's 1926 song The Bible's True. The call and response, Are we not men? We are Devo!, was a reference, Mothersbaugh said, to the 1932 film Island of Lost Souls. Other versions have added chants from Freaks and a line about O-Hi-O.

The earliest known live performance was on Halloween night in 1975, opening for Sun Ra. In a 1997 interview Mothersbaugh said the band once played it for half an hour to annoy a crowd. An early version soundtracked part of The Truth About De-Evolution, the 1976 short film directed by Chuck Statler. It was the B-side of Devo's first single in 1977, and the original single version reached number 62 in the UK. It was re-recorded with Brian Eno for the debut album. On Saturday Night Live on 14 October 1978 Devo played it as their second number. Tom Carson wrote in Rolling Stone that on Jocko Homo and Mongoloid it was impossible to tell whether the band were satirizing robotlike regimentation or glorifying it.

Devo recorded a muzak version for their 1981 EZ Listening cassette and played a slowed acoustic arrangement on the 1988 and 1990 tours, heard on Now It Can Be Told: Devo at the Palace. The French band Sloy covered it on a 1997 EP, and "Weird Al" Yankovic worked part of it into his 1984 polka medley Polkas on 45.