http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CluckingFunny

"He seems to lack the basic intelligence required for pretty much...everything."

Garfield, Garfield and Friends "Remember: Wit, satire, clever sayings, puns... none of this is as funny as a man in a chicken suit!"

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Chickens — small flight-inhibited birds with a tendency to break out in screeching panics over the smallest things — are inherently funny, like ducks, penguins and monkeys, maybe because they're being Comically Serious. Unlike penguins and monkeys, they're also regularly eaten (they taste like chicken). And that's pretty much it. This isn't really a family of tropes that has a whole heck of a lot of logic behind them.

Some useful notes on chickens. The domesticated chicken is known scientifically as Gallus gallus domesticus. They were most likely domesticated in India and Southeast Asia 8000 years ago, bred from the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) found in the region's rainforests, probably with some Grey Junglefowl hybridization tossed in. The domesticated chicken passed from India to the whole Old World, reaching China in prehistoric times, the Middle East by 2000 BCE, Africa by 1400 BCE, and Europe by 1000 BCE. They are the most common bird on the planet, some 24 billion strong — in other words, they outnumber human beings more than three to one.

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Also, the Romans practiced augury: reading the future from the acts of birds. Chickens were the most common; the state had official flocks of fortune-telling chickens, as did each ship and legion.

"Chicken" is also slang for Dirty Coward, possibly due to their tendency to run away squawking from any sign of danger (and they're surprisingly fast runners). Imitating a chicken's "bawk, bawk, bawk," is thus a classic way to tease someone for being scared, which may lead to the retort "Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!" Alternatively, someone might play a Game of Chicken to see who's the first to chicken out. This is quite ironic, since the real-life notes state that both roosters and chickens can be notoriously aggressive.

Roosters, i.e. fully grown male chickens are often an exception from the comical portrayal, depicted as boisterous, violent animals instead.

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Then of course there's the venerable Chicken Joke that raises the conundrum of why she decided to cross the road. Interestingly, it's believed that the joke was originally an example of Anti-Humor, beginning with what appears to be a standard setup for a comical punchline, but instead offering the mundane factual answer "To get to the other side." The effect is somewhat diluted since we've all heard it a million times, but tons of variations on the premise exist. This is an overlap with this trope since the reference to the chicken is funny in itself. (Imagine the same joke as "Why did the cow cross the road?" and you'll see it.)

Also, being birds, chickens are members of the Maniraptora family of the theropod dinosaurs. Like all other avians, they are in fact under the group of Paraves, which along with true birds, also contains their close relatives, the famous deinonychosaurs such as Velociraptor.

Repeat: CHICKENS ARE MODERN-DAY LIVING DINOSAURS AND ARE CLOSELY RELATED TO RAPTORS. Chickens deserve a bit more respect due to this.

Yes, technically chickens are a literal Real Life example of Domesticated Dinosaurs. In the modern age, you eat Raptor... and it Tastes Like Chicken.

As noted in the Real Life folder, chickens actual temperaments will vary from breed to breed, but even the ones that are friendly to humans are still omnivores and can eat anything with the misfortune of landing in their pen (often mice, lizards, frogs, and snakes). And if theyre starving or they spot a sick or injured flock member, they will gladly kill and EAT them.

Not to be confused with What's a Henway?

Examples

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Anime and Manga

Card Games

The Magic: The Gathering joke set Unglued had a chicken subtheme, with cards such as Poultrygeist, Free-Range Chicken, and, of course, Chicken Ã la King. There's also an aura called Fowl Play, that turns creatures into chickens.

Comic Books

In the "Transfer of Power" arc of The Authority after a year of hell at the hands of the G7 nations and some of the richest people in the world, as well as having "The Twenty Billion Dollar Bastard" Seth beating everyone on the team, including virtually killing the Midnighter (only a combination of the Doctor's magics and Engineer's surgical skills saved him), Swift (a nominal pacifist) has the Doctor turn Seth into a coop of chickens and dumps them on the doorstep of his own inbred rapist hillbilly family. His future was short.

Filipino comic book artist Gerry Alanguilan (who inked Superman: Birthright) has a self-published work called Elmer , about what happens when chickens achieve sentience and fight for their rights.

, about what happens when chickens achieve sentience and fight for their rights. Chickens are Serious Business in the world of Chew, because of their tasty-but-illegal-due-to-bird-flu-meat. That or their superior cock-fighting skills in the case of Poyo!

Gyro Gearloose from the Disney Ducks Comic Universe and DuckTales (1987). He's a fairly competent inventor, but still provides plenty of funny moments.

Mighty Avengers (2013): The Four Who Rule send numerous were-beasts to capture Blade, but it's the were-chickens that catch him. Ninja were-chickens. Fire-breathing ninja were-chickens. Blade mutters that it figures the most ridiculous thing in the world would catch him.

"Power Picnic," a story from the DC run of The Powerpuff Girls, dealt with a family of giant one-eyed alien chickens who land in Townsville for a picnic, unaware there are living creatures underclaw.

Comic Strips

Gary Larson's The Far Side comics sometimes involved chickens, usually portraying them as farm animals with an attitude. One collection, titled The Chickens Are Restless, has a cover of a chicken mob wielding Torches and Pitchforks and throwing eggs at a cow.

A chicken is how Popeye comes to be. In a Thimble Theater arc, Castor Oyl comes upon a breed of poultry called a Whffle Hen, which, on top of being unkillable (something he learns over the course of several strips), can also bring good luck to those who rub its three hairs. Deciding to get rich by taking advantage of this, Castor decides to sail to Dice Island, location of a deluxe casino. After buying a boat, he hires a crew of one... Castor: Hey, you there! Are you a sailor?

Popeye: Ja think I'm a cowboy?!

One of the recurring characters in the comic Pluggers is a hen named Henrietta Beak.

Fan Works

The almighty Clucky from Naruto: The Abridged Series. It's Naruto's ultimate weapon after all.

The Infinite Loops: At one point in the My Little Pony Loops, Twilight Sparkle takes to dressing up as a chicken. Why? No-one knows, because whenever they ask, some disaster strikes. When her friends finally work up the courage to ask, just as she's about to answer, the loop resets.

Lincoln's Memories: In "Lincoln's Seventh Birthday", Luna Loud gives him a card that has a chicken clucking out the Happy Birthday to You song.

Films — Animation

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

"Chicken Reel ". In fact, it is a Standard Snippet whenever chickens appear in old cartoons.

". In fact, it is a Standard Snippet whenever chickens appear in old cartoons. The solo guitarist Buckethead has named many song related to chickens, such as "Chicken for Lunch", "Chicken" and "I can only carry 50 chickens at a time". He also wears a KFC bucket on his head.

Many a child of the 90's could tell you about that era's favorite embarrassing dance, the Chicken Dance .

. Ray Stevens has done plenty of chicken songs, including "Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens" and renditions of "Also sprach Zarathustra" and "In the Mood" entirely in chicken clucks.

Hasil Adkins has an album called "Poultry In Motion".

Celtic Folk Rock band Emerald Rose has "The Chicken Raid of Cymru", a very bizarre and funny song in the style of ZZ Top, about a Celtic livestock raid that decided to go after chickens instead of the traditional cattle or sheep.

In the Jimi Hendrix instrumental "Third Stone From The Sun", an alien fleet arrives at Earth to search for intelligent life and somehow conclude that the only creature that qualifies is the chicken. At the end, they make off with all off the chickens before blowing up the planet.

Chinese pop star Wang Rong Rollin's song Chick Chick is all about chickens, accompanied by an equally bizarre music video .

. Tally Hall gave us the hip-hop standard "Mucka Blucka", which is essentially what would happen if you gave a chicken a hip-hop recording contract. It was infamously featured in an episode of The Good Wife, to which Joel McHale proclaimed on The Soup to be "The greatest transition in TV history!"

Mythology and Religion

Averted with the Sarimanok of Filipino mythology, a mystical, rainbow-colored rooster that essentially functions as the Philippines' take on The Phoenix. It is said to be majestic and beautiful, able to soar like an eagle, and was essential to the creation of the first man and woman when it pecked them out of the bark of a tree. It was a frequent pet/companion to the Filipino creator deities.

Other

Pinball

In Medieval Madness, a chicken is one of the items you can catapult at the castle.

Professional Wrestling

Puppet Shows

There's lots of chickens in The Muppet Show: The Great Gonzo (who may himself be some sort of bird, although probably not a chicken) is in love with Camilla the Chicken, and has chased other chickens romantically (namely out of confusion). Don't think about it too hard. While Gonzo is a Whatever (or an alien, if you take Muppets from Space as canon), his interest in chickens actually comes from an improvised joke. Originally they were trying to use dancing chickens, but none of the so-called "trained chickens" could dance, so it just showed Gonzo auditioning them. The line that established his chicken fetish was "Nice legs, though." Statler: How come chickens are so big on this show?

Waldorf: Well, chickens thrive on corn! This trope is taken to its natural extreme when, during one episode, EVERYBODY turns into a chicken, so that all the skits and acts have to be done as chickens. Well, Jim Henson thought chickens were the funniest animals in the world, so naturally, an episode devoted to chickens makes sense.

In The Muppet Christmas Carol, Fozziwig (the movie's version of Fezziwig, Scrooge's old boss) runs a rubber chicken factory.

The Funday Pawpet Show: BAWK!

Chica the chicken, a kazoo-voiced puppet who interacts with human hosts in the live "Sunny Side Up Show" block, is the mascot of PBS Kids Sprout and has toplined her own series, The Chica Show, since 2012. In that show, the supporting cast includes her parents, who can speak English but are also large hams (or chickens as the case may be).

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Web Animation

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

Real Life