History Main / CockroachesWillRuleTheEarth

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' "Tomb Worlds", planets whose native sapient life wiped themselves out in a nuclear war, often host pre-sentient insectoids that can be {{uplifted|Animal}}, enabling easier colonization of other Tomb Worlds. [[https://www.dropbox.com/s/50ucz2uhsuzsz9v/Earth%20Tomb.png?dl=0 Earth]] randomly generates as a Tomb World disturbingly often.

* Series/CowboyBebop2021''. Faye Valentine likes a variation of RockPaperScissors called Foot-Cockroach-Atomic Bomb.

* On pondering this trope, Irish comedian Jimeoin wondered if cockroaches had the same terror of thongs (often used to squash cockroaches) that people have of nuclear war, and imagined that cockroaches might write protest songs about them.

* It's not clear who originally said ([[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/they-always-said-cher-and-cockroaches-could-survive-the-end-of-the-world-lately-shes-not-so-sure-about-that/2018/11/26/3365acc4-eb70-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.html back in TheNineties]], apparently) that after the apocalypse it would be just cockroaches and Music/{{Cher}}, but at one point Cher herself supposedly repeated the joke and commented: "Someone once said, 'The only thing that will be left after a nuclear holocaust is Cher and cockroaches.' I think that's funny, because, you know, I am a survivor. If I am anything, that's what I am."

* A variation of the "cockroaches and Cher" joke surfaced on ''Series/EastEnders'': at one point tough-skinned survivor Pat Butcher observed that after the apocalypse it would be just her and the scorpions. Cue [[Series/HarryHillsTVBurp Harry Hill]] musing that [[FridgeLogic if that were the case]] they would [[CrackPairing eventually have to mate]], leading to that week's mid-episode CurbStompBattle featuring a hybrid half-scorpion, half-Pat Butcher creature known as a [=ScorpiPat=].

* It's not clear who originally said ([[https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/they-always-said-cher-and-cockroaches-could-survive-the-end-of-the-world-lately-shes-not-so-sure-about-that/2018/11/26/3365acc4-eb70-11e8-8679-934a2b33be52_story.html back in TheNineties]], apparently) that after the apocalypse it would be just cockroaches and ''Music/{{Cher}}'', but at one point Cher herself supposedly repeated the joke and commented: "Someone once said, 'The only thing that will be left after a nuclear holocaust is Cher and cockroaches.' I think that's funny, because, you know, I am a survivor. If I am anything, that's what I am."

* A variation of the "cockroaches and Cher" joke surfaced on ''Series/EastEnders'': at one point tough-skinned survivor Pat Butcher observed that after the apocalypse it would be just her and the scorpions. Cue [[Series/HarryHillsTVBurp Harry Hill]] musing that [[FridgeLogic if that were the case]] they would [[CrackPairing eventually have to mate]], leading to that week's mid-episode CurbStompBattle featuring a hybrid half-scorpion, half-Pat Butcher creature known as a ScorpiPat.

[[caption-width-right:250:"You'll have to put up with [[Music/TheRollingStones Keith Richards]], is that okay?"]]

* According to Creator/RobinWilliams, Keith Richards will be the only thing surviving a nuclear war while telling a nearby cockroach "Y'know, I smoked your uncle".

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[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_roaches_post_apocalypse.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:"You'll have to put up with [[Music/TheRollingStones Keith Richards]], is that okay?"]]

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* ''ComicBook/{{Kamandi}}'' takes place in an alternate future where humans are all but extinct and animals have become more anthropomorphic and sapient.

->''"Give up? Give up? What are you saying to me? How come us roaches have been able to outlast the dinosaurs? How do we survive poison and persecution? How do we keep on crawling, in the face of overwhelming odds? I'll tell you how: because WE NEVER GIVE UP! A true cockroach never gives up. They can stomp us, they can pop us, but they'll never ever stop us. Someday the great H-bomb is gonna drop, and we'll have the whole planet to ourselves."''

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'': In the episode "Wanda's Day Off!", Timmy wishes he knew what a cockroach was thinking about. When Cosmo [[TooDumbToLive grants the cockroach intelligence and the ability to speak]], it immediately stands up on its hind legs and yells "WORLD DOMINATION!" Throughout the rest of the episode, the cockroaches organize, gather weapons, and proceed to TakeOverTheWorld, until Wanda comes back and un-wishes the whole mess.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In one episode, Superman finds himself on Earth thousands of years [[AfterTheEnd after an apocalyptic event]] caused by ComicBook/VandalSavage (the only other person alive) and with a race of intelligent giant cockroaches as their enemies.

* Adam Ferrara joked about how his girlfriend was so strict and controlling that he came home one day to find his household cockroaches running the vacuum cleaner and yelling "Wipe your feet!" at him:

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy ]]
* On pondering this trope, Irish comedian Jimeoin wondered if cockroaches had the same terror of thongs (often used to squash cockroaches) that people have of nuclear war, and imagined that cockroaches might write protest songs about them.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/PeaceOnEarth'': Made in 1939 (just before World War II would be set off), and is set after a fatal global war war in which humans have gone extinct, as told by a kindly old squirrel (voiced by Mel Blanc) to his grandchildren in which the animals of the earth build a new civilization following this self inflicted omnicide. This was also remade in 1955 as "Good Will to Men" and modified with an anti-nuclear warfare message.

* The [[https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2019/12/08 December 8, 2019]] edition of Webcomic/BreakingCatNews recommends that cat owners should buy Christmas cacti instead of poinsettia, since they have attractive red flowers but are harmless to cats. They are also "virtually indestructible -- when the world ends, this will all be Christmas cacti and cockroaches." A graphic depicts the familiar mushroom cloud and cockroaches dancing happily among the cacti.