The Chicken's Dead

“Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.”
In the English-speaking world, that joke has traveled far and wide.
It’s actually rather sad, because the initial teller’s intent
Was subversive anti-humor. Yes, I’m sure that’s what was meant.
We’re supposed to expect a pun and not a simple, obvious truth,
Feeling silly not to guess, but now we learn it in early youth,
When we haven’t heard many jokes; in fact, it often is our first,
So the nuance must escape us and we think it’s just the worst.
Its simplicity’s deceptive; it was never made to be told
To a listener who’s less than maybe eight or nine years old.