"I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned."
In a candy shop in Oldtown Pasadena about 9 days ago, where we had stepped in because my nephew Dylan had a sweet-tooth, I ran across the above joke, inscribed on a fridge magnet, for sale for the ghastlily exorbitant price of $6.50.
I laughed very hard. So did my dad. My sister just made a face – the kind that says, "I can see why you would find that funny but I don't plan to laugh."
I bought two of them, but the phrase was already inscribed on my brain. Curt, who'd witnessed all this, was unable to understand the humor. Of course, there are lot of cultural touchstones that make it inaccessible to those not grounded in US culture.
I have been trying to think about how best to explain to Curt why this joke made me laugh so hard. I think the first step is to begin to fill in some missing cultural components, with a disquisition on the ancient "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke genre.
So, let's begin. There is a question-and-answer joke, that asks, "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
The oldest, most time-tested answer is, "To get to the other side."
There exists an infinite number of alternate versions, with questions and answers. Many of the versions rely on the "build up" of previous versions (e.g. #10, below). I researched a few that I found most humorous.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side
Why did the chicken cross the basketball court? He heard the referee calling fowls
Why did the turkey cross the road? To prove he wasn't chicken
Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in the mud and cross the road again? Because he was a dirty double-crosser
Why didn't the chicken skeleton cross the road? Because he didn't have enough guts
Why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide
Why did the dinosaur cross the road? Because chickens hadn't evolved yet
Why did the turtle cross the road? To get to the shell station
Why did the horse cross the road? Because the chicken needed a day off
The next step is to recognize the new joke's nod to another genre altogether: the "I dream of a world where. . . "
Somehow, my feeling is that this is rooted in the Langston Hughes poem. Or, if not rooted there, then nevertheless Hughes' poem is an early peak of a meme.
I Dream a World
I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!
So another aspect of the joke's appeal, at least to me, is that it takes the silly chicken joke meme and combines it with the high-register "I dream" meme.
Finally, the last part of the joke, which renders it especially appropriate for me, is the bit of psychobable at the end: ". . . without having their motives questioned."
This is a type of language popularized during my parents' generation, and echoes the whole "I'm OK, You're OK" meme of that era.
There's a lot going on in that joke. I have placed it on the sidebar of my blog.
[daily log: walking, 7km]