But WHY Is Chicken?
I’m giving a tour to a few people at a museum and have just explained something about an exhibit.
Me: “Any other questions?”
Woman: “Yeah, what came first: the chicken or the egg?”
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard these sorts of joke questions, so I already have a few standard answers prepared.
Me: “The egg; fish were laying them long before chickens existed.”
Woman: *Grinning* “Aww, that’s cheating.”
Man: “She means chicken eggs. Which came first: chicken egg or the chicken?”
Me: “The answer would still be the egg, laid by a creature almost identical to — but one mutation short of being — a chicken.”
Man: “Really?! I didn’t know that. What was that creature named?”
Me: “Well, no one would have bothered giving it a name, so I guess it would still be called a chicken by most definitions.”
Man: “But you said it wasn’t a chicken.”
Me: “I’m sorry, sir, I was being a little facetious with my answer. The real answer is that chickens slowly evolved over a very long time, meaning there was a very slow transition from a creature that was similar to but not considered a chicken into one that would be a chicken. Because of the slow transition, it’s not really possible to draw a clear line between when the egg in question would or wouldn’t be considered a chicken egg.”
Man: “But how does a chicken change? You mean as it grows up?”
Woman: “She’s talking about evolution. It would have taken thousands of years at least to change.”
Actually, “thousands of years” wouldn’t have been nearly enough time for a creature as large as a chicken to evolve. It would have taken tens of thousands of years at minimum and likely far more than that. But we are off-topic enough without my pointing that out. I try to get us all on task instead.
Me: “Okay, we should move on, if you all will come with me.”
Man: “But I still want to know how chickens changed.”
Woman: “Hon, you’re in the wrong museum if you want to know about evolution. The Natural History Museum is somewhere nearby. Go ask them if you really don’t understand evolution.”
Man: “I’ll do that!”
I felt a small pang of pity for my opposite over at the Natural History Museum when he said that. Wherever you are, you have my sympathies. I apologize for accidentally loosing a man desperate to know how chicken eggs evolved upon you.
