April 11, 2004

Do chickens make good cybertexts?

Given our foray into hypertexts, cyberfiction, and other electronic literature... I thought I'd share this link that was passed along to me and seems to be generating a bit of a stir:

http://www.subservientchicken.com/

Much like our friends, the badgers, I'm not sure what to do with this ... er... text. I do wonder about its situation in the realm of texts, cyber or otherwise, of cultural (poultry?) studies, and of the intersection between the internet and commercialization (how does this site help sell Burger King?). I also find it rather queer in many senses: the fact that it's a rooster (a male chicken not a female chicken), the fact that it's a person dressed up as a rooster, its subservience (which brings up all sorts of notions about power, sex, performance), and webcamminess of it all (do you cam?). And after you've told the chicken to do all sorts of things -- some of which he does to the letter, some of which seems more like interpretative dance, and some of which he simply misinterprets or gets wrong or ignores -- what do you have? entertainment? story? advertisement? fetish video?

Enjoy,
ED

Posted by Ed at April 11, 2004 03:18 PM
Comments

Yeah, my friend Godfrey sent me that... it seems impossible that it's actually tied to Burger King, since the freakin' chicken is wearing *garters*, but it's a brilliant ploy on the part of the programmer (and the chicken). The garters prompted me to tell it to strip, and it popped up a black box that said "chicken may be performing actions unsuitable for younger audiences."

Posted by: Jess at April 11, 2004 03:51 PM

darn you ED for giving me yet another way to waste time I don't have these days....

i thought the same thing as you, jess and was a bit afraid of what would be showing when the box went away. then again, i'm the one who typed the command...

i commanded it to "kiss" and it picked up one of the sofa pillows and started making out with it! HILARIOUS!!!!

melissa

Posted by: melissa at April 11, 2004 07:21 PM

And now if we just breed the chicken with the badgers...virtually, anyway.

Posted by: Joseph Byrne at April 14, 2004 03:04 PM