Chicken Come Again Song Chicken Come Again
Why Did the Craven Cantankerous the Road? History April 3, 2018
Writer: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Modernistic , trackback
Why did the chicken…?
'Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? To become to the other side.' It is one of the most slow jokes in history, but it is too one of the oldest in continuous use. Now, only how old and where does it come from?
Knickerbocker Glory
The primeval reference that has been institute then far (full credit to an bearding editor at Wikipedia here) dates to 1847 and the Knickerbocker (vol 29, p. 283) (a New York magazine).
Conundrums we exercise not greatly bear upon; and must therefore be excused in the eyes of 'K.' for declining his extensive batch. There are 'quips and quillets' which seem actual conundrums, but however are none. Of such is this: 'Why does a chicken cross the street?'… 'Considering information technology wants to get to the other side.'
'Thousand.' has sent in a selection of 'conundrums' and the tired editor quotes one to bear witness how bad they are: luckily for us it is ours. The chicken joke is caught in aspic in that moment, in the middle of the nineteenth century. Note that at this engagement there is no sense that information technology was usually known, at least non to the Knickerbocker's long-suffering joke editor (what a hellish job). I recollect here at the beginning we have the key to appreciating why-did-the-chicken: information technology was launched onto the world as a conundrum or a riddle, but actually it is a joke – in other words you don't get the expected pun and then beloved of nineteenth-century English speakers (and found today in Christmas crackers), y'all are made to realise that you are over-complicating simple things.
Variant Questions
The joke proved rather rare in the years that followed. I have not been able to dig up a single version from the early 1850s. the earliest seems to date to 1859 and it is a variant:
'Why does a chicken run across the road in dirty weather? To become to the other side.' An another alternative question appeared in the 1861 Bradford Observer: 'Why does a chicken iii weeks, 3 days, and three hours old, walk across the road? To get to the other side.'
Variant Answers
Of course, an of import part of the modern chicken joke is that expectations are dashed. I ask why the chicken crossed the road and you reply, say, 'To get to the Shell station' or anything other than the dread doom-laden syllables 'to go to the other side'. Variant answers were already cropping upward by the 1860s. This shows usa that (i) our ancestors were but as foolish as us; and (ii) the 'cross the road' joke must have been very well established because otherwise the following would fall flat.
In 1867 we get 'Why is a craven a crossing the road like a burglary?' I worried well-nigh this for near twenty minutes before I realised that the newspaper had printed the answer below: 'Because it is a fowl proceeding.' This is a failed joke… (Note that 'fowl proceeding' went back to an earlier joke: 'Why is a craven running, like a human being whipping his wife? Because it's a fowl proceeding', 1857.) Past 1878 the fowl joke had been naturalized: in 1878 in the Reading Mercury, for instance, the joke ran but 'why did the craven cross the road' 'it would exist a fowl proceeding'.
Triumph
In the first decades of the twentieth century there are many signs that the craven joke was as familiar to readers equally it is to usa. Past 1907 a British newspaper, the Western Daily News, can play with the joke using it for the title of piece on a chicken that ran into a bike. The chicken owner, incidentally, was not found liable… By 1919 an American playwright can include a rather good dialogue with the craven joke in (When the Circus came to Boondocks). Note the way that 'why the chicken' has effectively become an describing word.
Clay. 'Well, why does a chicken with a sack of flour on its back cross the street?'
Zuzu. 'Concur on, hold on. You tin't slip any 'why does a chicken cross the street stuff' over on me. Likewise, what's the idea of the sack of flour?'
Clay. 'Oh, I put that in to make it harder. Don't you retrieve that's funny.' (Anxiously.)
In 1939 a witness at Willesden Court, London answered, when asked, why he had crossed the route, inevitably: 'to become to the other side'. This was considered to be hilarious enough that it appeared in a regional Scottish paper. They didn't take the war to alibi them…
Conclusion and Claiming
And then where does the chicken joke came from? Britain or the US? Don't know why, but I'd approximate the U.k.. When? Information technology seems to have been putting down roots in the the 1840s and 1850s? Conundrums, similar poetry, were incredibly popular in staid Victorian drawing rooms on either side of the Atlantic: they did non have Youtube, they did non have Kindles… These witticisms were able to spread very quickly from mouth to oral fissure, with a speed that only internet memes manage today. The variant answers of the 1860s and 1870s evidence that the joke was well known by so, otherwise they would non have worked: they are adequately desperate anyway. Simply possibly some of the variant questions testify the same. Not sure. I really intendance nearly this ane so I'm shelling out (get information technology?). A suitably good second manus book sent via Amazon to anyone who can drag the joke dorsum beyond the Knickerbocker and 1849 [i.e. 1848 or earlier, information technology tin can be in English or a European language]. God help you. Information technology won't be like shooting fish in a barrel. Again my sixth sense says that, if found, an earlier version will be constitute in the U.k.: drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
Stephen D with a classic variant from the vi counties, 5 Nov 2017:
Question: Why did the chicken cross the road?
SINN FEIN: That would be a matter for the chicken. Sinn Fein and the craven are not part of the aforementioned organisation, although we share some ideals in common. If there are presently any chickens in Sinn Fein, we are not enlightened of it.
ORANGE Social club: The chicken is entitled to walk in a peaceful mode on the Queen's Highway. It's a traditional route. Anyone who tries to deny the craven his rights to walk on the road will find the road blocked at both ends until the chicken is immune to walk in a dignified and non-threatening style, without accompanying bands if need exist.
DUP: We are implacably opposed to the craven crossing the road until the chicken's armaments have been removed and the craven itself declares its diabolical intentions.
IRA: On behalf of the people of Ireland, we reserve the right to defend the roads of the island against the craven. For 800 years the Irish People take resisted the imposition of chickens by force of arms and shall continue to do so until the chicken is expelled from our land. Anyone collaborating with the chicken, or profitable or enabling the imposition of route crossing by chickens, will be deemed legitimate targets in our struggle against tyranny.
UFF: We, the loyal defenders of Ulster roads, reserve our right to retaliate against any precipitory hostile actions by the craven. We shall meet strength with deadly forcefulness. (A £200 donation to the Loyalist Prisoners Association will ensure free passage of the chicken with respect to the road and the crossing thereof, till the same time next month anyhow. Exercise chickens have kneecaps?)
UUP/SDLP Joint statement: We believe that simply by working together in unison, and with the majority of the people of this island, the British and Irish governments and our friends overseas behind us, tin can nosotros find the respond to this question. If we do not, or cannot, then our children will rightfully ask us the question, 'And then why did the chicken cross the road?'
THE Dwelling house Secretary, Uk GOV.: While non normally commenting on security matters, Her Majesty's Government feels it is right and proper, in this instance, to brand a statement on this thing. – Members of the Special Air Services involved in a covert anti-terrorist functioning on the road at 8:42 this forenoon observed the chicken attempting to cross the route. As the chicken was approached by one of the soldiers involved, information technology was seen to brand a threatening movement and action was taken to nullify that activeness. It has not been ascertained why the chicken was crossing the road, and it seems unlikely that we volition at present notice the motive.
Source: http://www.strangehistory.net/2018/04/03/the-history-of-why-did-the-chicken/
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