
Chicken Chicken Chicken: Chicken Chicken [pdf] - albertsun
http://isotropic.org/papers/chicken.pdf
======
Jabe
And the presentation version - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk>

~~~
Dove
Wow. That is the hardest I've laughed this _week_.

I loved the part where he referred to the slides to help answer a question.

------
nahreally
I'm sorry, but is this what passes for academic typesetting nowadays? I felt
as if I were sitting in some farcical business presentation as my eyes scanned
this typographical travesty! This _thing_ is an affront to the eyes as much as
to the mind, utter tripe. Don't the mods have any taste? Hacker News is truly
in the pits now.

~~~
ars
Really? The typesetting is the only problem you noticed with it? Did you
notice any typos?

------
cskau
Interestingly, while Google Scholar has indexed the paper (from another site),
it's actually only ranked number 2 for the query "chicken chicken chicken:
chicken chicken":

[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=chicken+chicken+chicken%...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=chicken+chicken+chicken%3A+chicken+chicken)

~~~
smnrchrds
More interestingly, it has been cited 9 times.

[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=9396708367921284731&...](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=9396708367921284731&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5&hl=en)

------
hkolek
I don't understand. Why is this funny? Are you all 5 year olds or am I missing
something?

~~~
bradleyland
It's satire. Pretty good satire, IMO. If someone had simply dumped the word
chicken in to a document broken in to paragraphs, it probably wouldn't get
many laughs, but this document is very well executed.

When you look at a lot of academic papers, you begin to notice patterns. It's
very easy to get wrapped up in what you're doing, looking past how silly some
of it can be. This document takes it to the extreme, but there are plenty of
papers published on mind numbingly banal topics.

That's why it's funny. It's a means of poking fun at one's self.

------
rjuyal
Chicken chicken, chicken chicken chicken chicken. Chicken chicken chicken[1].

Chicken chicken chicken {C(n)} chicken chicken. Chicken chicken chicken
chicken chicken.

____

Chicken chicken

chicken

~~~
Mithrandir
Chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken chicken:

    
    
        #!/chicken/chick/chicken
        
        chicken Chicken(chicken, chick, c):
        	 chicken chicken >= chick:
    	 	# Chicken chicken chicken
    	 	chick chicken(chicken-c)
    	 chick:
    		chick chicken

~~~
nathell
Chicken chicken chicken-chicken chicken chicken Chicken Chicken?

    
    
      ((chicken chicken) (chicken chicken))

------
zaph0d
"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" would have
at least been grammatically correct.

~~~
anonymous
It is grammatically correct, since nouns can be verbed -- chicken can be a
noun, verb and even adjective, even though its verb form doesn't have a
defined meaning -- it's just meaningless. Think of it like this:

    
    
        struct chicken chicken(struct chicken chicken) {
            return chicken.chicken;
        }
    

This will parse, it just won't compile, since we're missing the definition of
struct chicken.

Contrast with "chicken go fly", which is grammatically incorrect, but
meaningful.

~~~
James_Duval
It does have a defined meaning, doesn't it? "to chicken (out of something)".

~~~
riffraff
I though it was grammatically incorrect anyway i.e.

(the) (adj)chicken (name)chicken (verb)chicken

misses an "s" either on the verb or the name.

But it could be an imperative form perhaps? As in "coward poultry, get out of
there"

~~~
James_Duval
Hah, that is exactly what I thought.

It doesn't lend itself well to strings of words longer than 3 though, because
you can't "chicken" someone, as far as I know - and I don't intend on visiting
Urban Dictionary to find out.

------
Stately
This is the lecture that accompanied the paper:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yL_-1d9OSdk>

------
cjg
LISP version:

(chicken chicken (chicken chicken chicken))

Can you come up with an implementation of chicken that allows this code to
run?

~~~
ajuc
I think any 2 argument function will work? At least in clojure.

    
    
        > (defn chicken [x y] 1)
        #'sandbox5403/chicken
        > (chicken chicken (chicken chicken chicken))
        1

------
navs
Now I really feel stupid. For the unenlightened, can someone shed some light
on what this means please?

~~~
srpeixinho
Chicken

------
GotAnyMegadeth
My favourite bit is:

    
    
        Chicken, chicken chicken, chicken chicken chicken 1987.

------
tomweingarten
I wonder if one of those citations is to PLIF:
<http://plif.courageunfettered.com/archive/wc072.gif>

------
kelvin0
Yeah, that post entry gets traction when other newsworthy stuff gets canned.
HN is slowly slipping into a weird dimension where Zombies are taking over ...

~~~
gruseom
HN has always had room for the occasional off beat. Since this is a clever
parody of a stock computer science paper, it's not even a stretch to
understand why it got upvoted. I admit that I didn't get it, though, until I
watched the (much funnier) video. It's really a parody of a stock computer
science _talk_ , with associated paper.

------
splawn
A few years ago, at work we were asked if we wanted steak or chicken for a
lunch thing. I replied with this pdf as my answer.

------
lipanski
I wonder whether there is an entire school of thought based on the principles
(correctly) formulated within this paper.

------
groundCode
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect
on the teacher

------
mattmaroon
I miss his Dominion client daily.

~~~
TheCowboy
Me too. The official one feels clunky and cartoonish.

But Innovation has been a good addiction replacement:

<http://innovation.isotropic.org>

------
gbraad
He could have used random kanji/hanzi and probably be even more meaningful
胡说八道

------
seanmcdirmid
This is the best paper on Chicken scheme that I have ever been able to read.

------
Yuioup
:%s/\w\\+/chicken/g

------
bromagosa
Way older than the Internet... still fun though.

------
Pitarou
Now that's what I call obfuscation.

------
rosser
Holy semantic satiation, HN.

------
AddisonRyan
...what combo you pickin?

------
egypturnash
Old, but a true classic!

------
acomjean
always makes me laugh

------
frazerb
chicken

