Amoebas at the start
Were not complex;
They tore themselves apart
And started Sex.

In four brisk lines, Guiterman compresses a comic “origin story” for sexual reproduction. The speaker contrasts primitive simplicity (“Amoebas at the start / Were not complex”) with the later emergence of sex, punning on biological “complexity” (more elaborate organisms and reproductive strategies) and social/psychological complexity. The joke hinges on an exaggerated, anthropomorphic image—amoebas “tearing themselves apart”—which echoes asexual division (fission) while whimsically recasting it as the prelude to sex. The verse typifies light-verse wit: scientific vocabulary is used for rhyme and surprise, turning evolutionary history into a playful epigram about how something seemingly simple can lead to a more complicated world.