# Finish the joke: Why did the chicken cross the road? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 4, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750 "2007-05-04T15:35:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/21 "2007-05-04T21:19:55Z")
For dhick’n soup! What? It could’n hoit! The chicken had been watching _Medium_, and she wanted to “cross over.” The coyote had put a sign over there, saying “Bird Seed.” Because Ray Charles said to hit the road. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/22 "2007-05-04T21:23:08Z")
To prove to the raccoon that it could be done. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/23 "2007-05-04T21:53:48Z")
To wield a 1920s Style Death Ray against the witless masses. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/24 "2007-05-04T23:42:52Z")
To get away from Kirk. And you don’t want to know any more than that. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/25 "2007-05-05T01:19:58Z")
To lay it on the line. Because the light was green. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/26 "2007-05-05T04:17:16Z")
Hemingways answer: To die. In the rain. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/27 "2007-05-05T04:42:42Z")
Haiku Chicken crosses road Farside joke in the making Avoids falling sky FML ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/28 "2007-05-05T07:40:52Z")
To get from post 18 to post 26. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/29 "2007-05-05T08:53:23Z")
[QUOTE=Rigamarole] In Soviet Russia, the road crosses YOU! [/QUOTE] I always laugh at these Soviet inferences, and now I can’t even remember why :mad: ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/30 "2007-05-05T09:02:06Z")
To avoid the tainted feed and get that USDA seal. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/31 "2007-05-05T11:41:31Z")
Because it couldn’t cross its fingers ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/32 "2007-05-05T11:59:39Z")
Why **didn’t** the chicken cross the road? Because it was chicken! ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/33 "2007-05-05T12:38:36Z")
I heard a slightly different Hemmingway version: To die. In the rain. Alone. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/34 "2007-05-05T15:21:05Z")
[QUOTE=Cicero] I always laugh at these Soviet inferences, and now I can’t even remember why :mad: [/QUOTE] See [here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_reversal) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2007, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/35 "2007-05-05T15:27:03Z")
Eszterhazy had long made a habit of keeping several enquiries in progress, in some manner or other, simultaneously, hopeful to inoculate himself against the sense of ennui and listlessness that often ensued upon the successful conclusion of an enquiry. And on this morning, while attempting to concentrate his mind on the far more pressing (indeed, to be sure a matter of national security and international tranquility) matter of the theft of the Cyprus Regalia from the Crypt of St. Sophie, he found his attention inexplicably but inexorably diverted to the mystery of the Chicken Who Crossed the Road. It would appear to the casual observer that the worms and corn were as abundant upon the Hither Side of the road as upon the Thither Side, the gravel bits as bright and appealing, the hens as plump and complaisant. Yet Eszterhazy, he more than many others, could readily empathize with the creeping restlessness that could make the near and comfortable side of the road appear stale through familiarity, the unknown far side an inviting field of discovery and possibilities. Just so, but it would be an error of sophomoric dimensions to assume, without more evidence, that a course of action appealing to Eszterhazy might be similarly appealing – or appealing for similar reasons – to a _Gallus gallus._ As he selected from his humidor, clipped, lit, drew, and meditatively puffed upon a Trichonopoly cheroot, Eszterhazy ruminated (ruminated? aviated? gallicated? _brooded?_ nay, not brooded) upon the words of the so-called Baconian Addendum to the _Malleus Maleficarum:_ “The mind of a chicken is not the same as the mind of a man.” And that, indeed, might well be the answer. But, Eszterhazy wondered, to which question? – From “The Avian Conundrum,” by Avram Davidson ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/36 "2007-05-06T00:22:40Z")
42! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/37 "2007-05-06T00:46:13Z")
Why did Douglas R. Hofstadter cross the road? So that I could ask this question. ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/38 "2007-05-06T01:01:42Z")
For fowl purposes. HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/39 "2007-05-06T02:34:53Z")
Because it was stapled to the dead baby. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2007, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750/40 "2007-05-06T02:41:47Z")
No soap, radio! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finish-the-joke-why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road/402750.md?page=3)