>>36129073G1 also had some of the most unimaginative Pokemon designs to date. Look. A literal seal. Look. A literal crab. Look. A literal clam. Look. A literal bull. Look. A literal praying mantis. The humanoid designs are just parodies or literal ripoffs of actual people, such as Hitmonchan being a literal parody of a famous Japanese boxer.
Game Freak also used some of the most basic names for these Pokemon in Japan; they named the Hitmons after famous Japanese martial artists (Ebiwalar and Sawamular), and chose names such as Sand, Crab, Casey, Yungurer, Foodin, Showers, Thunder, Thunders, Booster, Fire, Mew, etc. It's like they literally didn't give a shit about creativity in the first gen because they thought it was going to be their first and only project.
