# Chicken in the car and the car can't go **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391 "2000-06-14T19:51:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![njk8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@njk8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njk8)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/1 "2000-06-14T19:51:05Z")
Does anyone know the origen or purpose of the saying, “Chicken in the car and the car can’t go,” and i believe it also has “and thats how you spell chicago.” ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/2 "2000-06-14T21:50:06Z")
It’s a tongue twister although I haven’t found an origin yet. From [Collection of Tongue Twisters](http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm) "Knife and a fork bottle and a cork that is the way you spell New York. Chicken in the car and the car can go, that is the way you spell Chicago. " ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/3 "2000-06-14T22:43:37Z")
Also… Gordon “Wedge” Wedgewood Author of the novel “Chicken in the Car and the Car Won’t Go, CHICAGO”, (Chicago as it was a half century ago) And… “Chicken In The Car” is a song done by Ralph Flanagan on the RCA label. ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2000, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/4 "2000-06-14T23:05:48Z")
This won’t help too much but it was also a rhyme used during jump rope. My first aweareness of it was about 1926 +/- a year or so. It was a piece of nonsence like" Chevrolet—y’gotta shove 'er or let her lay" or “Bottle and cork spells NewYork” Kid fun stuff ---
**Author:** ![njk8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@njk8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njk8)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/5 "2000-06-15T13:42:22Z")
ok, that was some help. but my brother reminded me of another one, which went something like, “The C the Ci the Constant I, the Nople the Pople, thats how you spell Constantinople.” have any of your heard of that, he distincly remembers our grandfather telling this one to him in the parking lot of a swim club, but thats the only information he gave me, also, i have never heard this one. incidentaly, it was at this same time as our grandfather was telling him this one, that an old man came up and told my brother the Chicken in the Car rhyme, as though they might be related. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/6 "2000-06-15T17:12:38Z")
Slightly off topic, but I always loved the mneomic aid my father used to remember how to spell “geography”: George Eggers Old Grandfather Rode A Pig Home Yesterday ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/7 "2000-06-15T17:17:50Z")
I first saw it in Carl Withers’ collection A ROCKET IN MY POCKET: THE RHYMES AND CHANTS OF YOUNG AMERICANS (1948), a classic children’s book that is still in print and which every parent ought to provide for their kids. ---
**Author:** ![funneefarmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@funneefarmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/funneefarmer)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2000, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/8 "2000-06-15T17:20:42Z")
From [Examples of Folksay](http://www.usu.edu/~folklo/exsay.htm), who consider it an example of a spelling rhyme. Can you count? Can you stand? Can you con-stant-I? Can you nople? Can you pople? Can you CONSTANTINOPLE? ---
**Author:** ![gillygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3e96dc/32.png) [@gillygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gillygirl)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2000, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/9 "2000-06-17T17:43:14Z")
slightly off topic too but…my 8th grade science teacher (a long time ago-im 22 and i feel old thinking about that! LOL) told the class that she had a sure fire way to help us remember organism classifications (kingdom, phyllum,class, order,family,genus,species) … “King Phillip Came Over For Great Sex” …ive never forgotten that! LOL anyway,just a little tid-bit! ---
**Author:** ![Liamalex11b](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@Liamalex11b](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liamalex11b)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/10 "2022-02-05T11:46:45Z")
"A chicken in the car and the car won’t go, that’s the way to spell Chicago” is a popular Chicago rhyme that has been cited in print since at least 1926."A chicken in the car and the car won’t go, that’s the way to spell Chicago” is a popular Chicago rhyme that has been cited in print since at least 1926. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2022, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/11 "2022-02-05T16:02:55Z")
& @gillygirl has _doubled_ her age since she was the last poster in this thread! @Liamalex11b, welcome to The Dope; you do realized you’ve revived a 22 year old thread; many of those original posters are long gone. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/12 "2022-02-06T00:19:23Z")
Knife and a fork bottle and a cork that is the way you spell New York. [/quote] What was the 1960s - 70s song that used this phrase? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2022, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicken-in-the-car-and-the-car-cant-go/22391/13 "2022-02-06T01:48:02Z")
_Chicken in the bread pan_ _Scratching out dough,_ _“Granny, will your dog bite?”_ _“No, child, no.”_ _“Granny, will your hen peck?”_ _"No, child, no._ _Pappy cut her bill off_ _A long time ago."_ And that spells Arkansas. Or Texas.