I didn’t understand the first joke I ever learned.

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”

“To get to the other side.”

Oh, my 4-year-old self said. This was supposed to be funny? I didn’t see anything funny in it.

And why would I find it funny? The only way to get that joke is to have heard many other jokes before it. It’s a meta-joke, a joke about jokes. Which means that it may be the single worst joke to use to introduce children to the concept of jokes.

Other jokes worked better. Knock knock, who’s there, banana, banana who. Knock knock, who’s there, banana, banana who. Knock knock, who’s there, orange, orange who, orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

Hilarity ensued! The buildup, the element of surprise, the wordplay. That one I got.

The chicken, though. That joke got passed around, referenced everywhere. It made it seem like The Chicken was an introductory joke.

It’s not, though. It’s an advanced joke.

To understand the chicken joke, one first must know the classic joke form, “Why did x do y?”

• Why did the bear spit out the clown? He tasted funny.
• Why do the French like eating snails? They’re into slow food.
• Why did the dog sit next to the fire? Because he loved hot dogs.

These are wordplay-based jokes. They’re about using an interpretation of the words in the punchline that surprises you by not quite fitting with the setup. This is a concept children can understand, the very basics of joke-based humor.

But The Chicken is an entirely different beast. It’s a joke about the joke form itself. This chicken does not cross the road for any sort of wordplay reason. It doesn’t cross because it has a wishbone to pick with someone on the other side. It doesn’t cross because that’s where the other birds of a feather are flocking. It doesn’t cross to look for egg-stra food.

No, this chicken crosses only to get to the other side.

The humor lies entirely in expecting there to be a clever wordplay reason for the chicken’s treacherous journey, and the surprise when, instead, there is no particular reason at all. No comedic punchline, only something straightforward. The joke is that the teller has subverted your expectations of joke format in an anticlimactic way.

That’s why it’s all wrong to use as an introductory joke. To understand it, you need to have learned the classic joke format first. It’s only then that the punchline delivers a surprise. It takes kids a while to start understanding joke format enough to be able to tell jokes accurately themselves. They’re not ready for The Chicken, and probably won’t be until college.

Personally, I prefer to tell kids jokes they understand and enjoy. Children are really not into The Chicken, unless you add new layers to it with follow-ups, like:

You: Why did the chicken cross the road?

Child: Why?

You: To get to the other side.

Child: Oh.

You: Why did the fox cross the road?

Child: Why?

You: He wanted chicken for dinner.

Child (internally): Hey, now I understand why this grown-up told me that pointless first part.

Child (externally): Hahahaha!

The joke by itself, though? Utterly pointless to them. Ask any child their favorite joke. They will not tell you The Chicken. That’s a grown-up joke they do not get.

It’s possible you never got it before now either. You probably never even thought about it before.

Well, now you have. So stop bombing with the preschoolers during your tight five comedy set at story hour and start using jokes that are sure to kill every time, like this one:

Knock knock.

Who’s there?

Europe.

Europe who?

No, you’re a poo!

Melissa Balick is a writer and babysitter/nanny in Oakland, California. If you like this, you might also like the article, “Do You Actually Understand This Common Expression.” You can find all of her work here: