"Knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork" spells NY?

Factual Questions
1

I’d heard the phrases “Knife and fork a bottle and a cork. That’s the way you spell New York” sung in an Information Society song. Searching the web, I see it was also used in songs by Dillinger, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

In a genealogical page, I found it followed by another set, “Chicken on the car and the car won’t go.That is the way you spell Chicago.”

What is the whole song, where is it from, and what does it mean (if anything)?

Toff
Troy, New York

2

Wow! Deja vu.

I can remember my Dad saying “chicken in the car and the car can’t go, that’s how you spell Chicago” from the early 1950’s.

Never heard the NY/cork.

3

I’ve heard the Chicago one (which actually makes a bit of sense), and another. “A woman and a man sitting in a pan, that’s how you spell Japan.”