Keep ****in' that chicken

this is too hilarious, surprised it hasn't been posted yet...

and if it's safe for New York's airwaves, surely it's safe for CF.net...

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the daily show picked it up last night.

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it's certainly more New York than "Yes We Can."

[rquoter]For Anastos and Chicken Pluckers, It’s Only Words

By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Jeffrey Neira/Associated Press Ernie Anastos
Ernie Anastos vaulted onto the world stage when he said a bad word on television. He apologized, his bosses said they were disappointed, and thousands of YouTube viewers watched the moment again and again. His explanation? According to news reports, he meant to say, “Keep plucking that chicken.”

We believe him — and why shouldn’t we? — but … well … his explanation kind of raises another, perhaps even more baffling question: What does “Keep plucking that chicken” mean?

And, thanks to its furious dissemination around the globe, could it or the more raw variation Mr. Anastos seemed to utter become a new New York City catchphrase, on par with “Fuggedaboutit” or Ed Koch’s “How’m I doin’?”

We set out to answer these questions.

First, the possible meaning. The four-word phrase suggests continuing with a chore that must be completed, even if the rewards are minimal. It suggests determination, willpower, an existential task with an obscure or unknown endpoint, a sense of carrying on despite odds. At the same time, it could also be an invitation to extended revelry. The use of the word “keep” implies that the task that must be completed, whatever it is, has already been started. Some possible examples:

A businessman sits at his desk at 7 p.m. contemplating the 12-inch-high pile of paperwork that must be finished by morning. He knows he’ll never make it home by dinner. He calls his wife and tells her: “I’m staying late.” She replies encouragingly, “Keep plucking that chicken.”

A group of dot-comers are at the Magician on Rivington Street at 3 a.m. Some are ready to head home after a night of drinking. But others want to continue. “One more round,” someone says, “Keep plucking that chicken!” They keep drinking.

The conductor of a southbound No. 4 train alerts his passengers that, because of a sick passenger on the train ahead, they’ll be stuck in the tunnel north of Union Square. “We’ll just keep plucking that chicken,” he tells them. Everyone waits.

YouTube The WNYW Fox 5 news anchor Ernie Anastos uttered a four-word phrase on television which, through online sites like YouTube, has raced around the world.
The phrase is certainly spreading. It has inspired music videos and T-shirts (including children’s sizes), and late-night television jokes. Already, people are using it in their replies on Twitter (we would include the search, but decided against it).

So we reached out to some notable and not-so-notable New Yorkers to see if their interpretation matches ours.

The Rev. Al Sharpton said the poultry line could serve as a kind of encouragement. “It could be a kind of phrase: ‘Well, keep doing what you are doing. Keep going after it,’” he said. “Even if you are tired or distracted, keep on doing that chicken, that kind of thing.”

Mr. Sharpton has his own expression to that effect. “I would say, ‘Keep it moving, despite it all.’”

Asked if he would consider retiring his line, “Keep it moving,” for the poultry variety, he said it wouldn’t abide with his religious beliefs. “It’s not exactly my kind of phraseology,” he said. “I would be afraid Peter would get mad at me.”

The idea of chicken plucking may hold a special resonance for New Yorkers beyond the fact that it burst out from New York local television. “In New York, we are all faced with the lovely experiment where things go awry instantaneously in any given moment,” said Kennedy Moore, the founder of AskaNewYorker.com, a community advice site. “The grind of life in New York. I keep at it. I keep plucking that chicken. I don’t stop.”

It could be a way for New Yorkers to demonstrate their fortitude to each other, he said. “How did your day go? ‘It was a tough day, but I keep plucking that chicken.’”

Could it be shortened to “pluck that chicken?”

No — he agreed with us on the importance of the word “keep.”

“You have to say ‘keep.’ The word keep is essential,” he said. “It provides a rhythmic quality and a sign of endurance.”

But others see adapting the phase for more general use — as a salutation, or farewell. Indeed, on Thursday night’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart noted that he had gone 10 years without a signature sign-off and proposed that he adopt a variant of “Good Night. Keep plucking that chicken.” (Actually there was a bleep over, but we assume that is what he said.)

“What I love about it is it’s versatile,” he said on the episode. “It’s my thing now. I can use it anywhere. Signing autographs, you know. ‘Keep plucking that chicken, Jon Stewart.’ Even when I’m out on the street and run into old acquaintances and I can be like, ‘Hey hey, my brother, are you still plucking that chicken?’” (There were beeps over all the “pluckings.”)

Mr. Koch, who was mayor from 1978 to 1989, also gave a positive assessment of the line.

“It has a nice sound to it,” he said. “It could become a phrase that people could use.” Though he insists, since he knows Mr. Anastos, that he meant to use “plucking” version.

Asked what it the poultry line could possibly mean, Mr. Koch replied, “It means, keep it up, keep plugging that issue.”

Mr. Koch knows signature phrases. He first said “How’m I doin’?” in 1969 in talking with constituents at a subway stop. “It is amazing how it continues — I’m very proud of it,” he said. “It struck a chord. No other politician before me would dare say ‘judge me.’” (He used it on his stationery and his campaign materials.)

Still, to this day, he will be walking down the street someone will yell out, “How’m I doin’?”

“My response to that is, ‘You’re doing terrific, how about me?’” he said.

But now he says he might a new canned response. “If I am walking down the street and someone yells at me, ‘How’m I doin’?’ I’m going to yell back, ‘Keep plucking that chicken,’ and it fits.”[/rquoter]

and you can get your kids to show their street cred as well.