# the chicken or the egg? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 22, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946 "2004-08-22T05:45:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tapu264](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tapu264](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu264)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/1 "2004-08-22T05:45:34Z")
Cecil yous a smart man, you got some straight dope. you answered the question that dope made me think of. peace ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/2 "2004-08-22T09:46:19Z")
You don’t need Cecil to answer that question. Eggs were being laid (by reptiles, fish, other birds) long before the first chicken evolved. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/3 "2004-08-22T11:57:17Z")
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board, **tapu264** , we’re glad to have you with us. When you start a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the column that you are commenting on. That saves a lot of search time, and perhaps stops people from repeating stuff that’s in the column (as **kat** did.) No biggie, you’ll know for next time. In this case, the column is [Which came first, the chicken or the egg?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_218.html) ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/4 "2004-08-22T22:21:31Z")
:eek: I don’t remember posting that. Why do you people let me post at quarter to five in the morning? :smack: Welcome to SDMB, **tapu**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/5 "2004-08-24T04:33:38Z")
ok, I have a question. What’s the _point_ of the chicken or the egg question? What I mean is, did it start as something related to evolution (I remember having this discussion with a friend in kindergarten who said, oh, the chicken came first it was created by god…I though she was nuts. Comes from being raise heathen :D). Or was it just a paradoxical question? Or does it exist to make the terrible joke Cecil mentioned? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/6 "2004-08-24T12:46:47Z")
It was an old-time joke/paradox, beloved of small children and old vaudevilleans. The egg can’t come first because it needs a chicken to lay it, and the chicken can’t come first because it came from an egg, ha ha ha. Kind of like [why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_080.html), or [how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_083a.html), such jokes aren’t meant to be actually answered. They’re just jokes. So, usually the person writing in to ask Cecil is just wisecracking, but occasionally Cecil takes 'em on with a serious response. Or partly serious, anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/7 "2004-08-24T14:23:16Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > ok, I have a question. What’s the _point_ of the chicken or the egg question? > > What I mean is, did it start as something related to evolution (I remember having this discussion with a friend in kindergarten who said, oh, the chicken came first it was created by god…I though she was nuts. Comes from being raise heathen :D). > > Or was it just a paradoxical question? Or does it exist to make the terrible joke Cecil mentioned? I had a neighbor who liked to debate this too, and with the same God-made-the-chicken argument. I always used to answer, “The chicken came first after the egg.” I’m not sure where that came from. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/8 "2004-08-24T15:52:21Z")
m, here at chez Aruvqan, the chicken definitely came first. Actually 2 dozen baby chickens came first, when the select few that didnt get eaten started laying eggs they were about 26 weeks old… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/9 "2004-08-24T23:29:57Z")
> [@C K Dexter Haven](#): > > It was an old-time joke/paradox, beloved of small children and old vaudevilleans. The egg can’t come first because it needs a chicken to lay it, and the chicken can’t come first because it came from an egg, ha ha ha. Fair enough. Although it certainly seems to have had a second life as a creationist/evolutionist trope, in addition to debates between pre-schoolers, I just saw a church banner that read “Was it the chicken or the egg…or GOD!!!” I guess the joke has…er…evolved… ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2004, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/10 "2004-08-29T12:53:56Z")
I read somewhere (can’t find any cite) that the riddle was contained in one of the first books ever printed by Caxton. Don’t know if he invented it, or what. ---
**Author:** ![SiXSwordS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/49beb7/32.png) [@SiXSwordS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SiXSwordS)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2004, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-chicken-or-the-egg/260946/11 "2004-08-30T15:28:38Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > I read somewhere (can’t find any cite) that the riddle was contained in one of the first books ever printed by Caxton. Don’t know if he invented it, or what. I hate to be contrary ( like I would drag up a day-dead-thread for any other reason!) But I couldn’t find anything like the chicken or the egg dilemma on [this Caxton](http://www01.vaio.ne.jp/kageyama/2002/53-2.htm) site. Maybe there were only chickens back then?