Why did the chicken cross the road?

The last few days I have asked students upon entering the class to tell me something funny, a story, or give me something to brighten the day. Yesterday I had a girl, after much cheering and encouragement from her peers, stand up and sing into a plastic banana. She was very good. She got up, giggled, and covered her mouth while she sang. When she got especially shy she turned around and sang to the door. Towards the end of the song she was facing forward with her mouth uncovered. The girls in the back of the room sang back up and clapped their hands. It was beautiful. I am blessed to be surrounded by such a supportive group.

Today I asked one of my classes for a joke. One girl only knew half a joke so she wouldn't tell it. I decided to give an example. I remembered telling "Why did the chicken cross the road?" to a teacher who did not understand it. I decided to try that one again, just to see if the reaction was the same. I wrote the question on the board. No one understood. I wrote the answer on the board. Still, nothing. I tried the variation about the duck crossing the road because it was the chicken's day off. Still, no response.

Of course, too, this was after a great amount anticipation and build up. I explained to them that this is an essential joke in English, that you would be hard pressed to find a single native speaker that does not know this joke. It is so ubiquitous in English speaking, especially American, culture that there is an entire genre of joke that depends purely on the assumption that everyone knows the original chicken joke. It is taken as a given that you know this joke. I don't even remember learning it. 

Part of me wanted to defend the joke, to stand there and lecture out an explanation for why it was funny, but I knew that would be pointless. Instead, I began to second guess myself. Maybe the chicken joke isn't actually funny. I do laugh occasionally at it, but I also laugh at a lot of stupid things. Still, after thinking about it, I suppose the reason this joke is supposed to be funny is that it preys on our tendency as humans to make things more complicated than they actually are. The chicken joke is a joke that has instead been subjected to Occam's razor: the simplest, least phenomenal answer is probably the closest to the correct one. We are given no evidence about the chicken, and so we can only give a limited answer. There, my explanation makes it funny, right? Haha!

I told the joke later to a group of teachers while we ate ice cream. Most thought it was funny, one openly laughed.

I told a few other classes. They didn't get it.