Just like a good pair of flare pants or the mullet hairstyle, a good ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ joke never really goes out of style.
But on social media, people believe they have uncovered the true and darker meaning behind the set up and most popular punchline.
And to put it mildly, it is absolutely blowing their minds.
This all started when podcaster Kate Lister took to Twitter to reveal she had recently discovered the truth.
She explained how she never *truly* got the joke ‘Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side’, until now.
Chickens crossing the road can be dangerous work (Getty Stock Image)
Lister said: “Hang on a damn second. You’re telling me that the chicken who crossed the road was KILLED and went to ‘the other side??’ THATS THE JOKE? All these years I thought that little f***** was just crossing the road.”
So yeah, according to this interpretation of the joke, that poor little chicken didn’t actually make it to the other side of the road… simply the chicken afterlife.
As you can imagine, this wild revelation garnered a whole lot of reactions from other people online. Some admitted they felt they had now been enlightened, mind-blown or remained doubtful about the joke’s alleged new meaning.
One person wrote: “I’m in my 60s and just learned this about a year ago. It may have ruined the joke for me.”
This revelation hit one user particularly hard as they commented: “No way! Stop it. Okay breathe… So right now I don’t know whether to be sad, cry, confused, impressed, or feel really stupid for thinking that d*** chicken was just on a mission to get to the other side of the freak’n road. Like he was just on his way home from work or something.”
What I suspect the chicken afterlife looks like (Getty Stock Image)
A third simply added: “Ooh. That puts a different perspective on things. This dark world is now a little darker.”
However, not everyone was convinced by this suggestion, as one person wrote: “No, it’s another meaning that people have imposed on the joke retrospectively, and has gained some traction on social media in recent years. The original point of it is just that it’s an anti-joke that subverts your expectations. He is just crossing the road.”
Well either way, let’s have a moment of silence for all the chickens that don’t make it to the other side.
