The Rubber Chicken and the Museum Dedicated to It
Plus, to stay with the theme, a bird feeder.
Since approximately 1991, I’ve been enthralled with rubber chickens. It’s a peculiar fascination, I know, but long story short, it all comes down to the computer game, The Secret of Monkey Island, where a “rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle” serves a vaguely surreal purpose.
That’s some chicken, indeed!
Exactly why rubber chickens live rent-free in my mind thirty-five years later is anyone’s guess, but it is what it is – one of those things that might be best left to a professional to figure out.
Meanwhile, enabling this fascination is Seattle’s Rubber Chicken Museum, a weird and wonderful shrine to what, admittedly, is the most cringeworthy comedic prop. One I am endlessly enthralled by, nonetheless.
A History of Sorts
By all accounts, rubber-chicken humor originated in medieval times. Court jesters would flop around real chicken carcasses as a subversive takedown of the “don’t play with your food” idiom. It landed, and the chicken prop was used throughout the heydays of Vaudeville, when, during World War II, it was replaced by its rubber knockoff. Salmonella outbreaks were seemingly a common side effect of the comedy.
Since, diverse comedic voices like Monty Python and The Muppets have used the prop. Even Johnny Carson kept a rubber chicken under his desk for good luck.
That brings us to 2018, when Seattle mainstay novelty store, Archie McPhee, opened its Rubber Chicken Museum. Archie McPhee has been around since 1983, but its history goes back to the early seventies, when Mark Pahlow started selling rubber lizards out of his L.A. home. After he moved to Seattle, he opened Archie McPhee, where rubber chickens became a bestseller – alongside the Punching Nun and a Librarian Action Figure.
Needless to say, it’s a weird store, and the small novelty museum fits in seamlessly in both tone and size. Here you can find both the world’s largest (seven-foot-tall) and the world’s smallest (less-than-an-inch) rubber chickens. The “Chicken Dance” melody plays in the background, and you can peruse rubber chickens from all through the ages. Education and entertainment – edutainment, though Monkey Island’s iconic pulley-based poultry is sadly nowhere to be seen.
Still, go for the toys and stay for the rubber chickens, or vice versa. Archie McPhee and its Rubber Chicken Museum are home to some quirky goodness.
Address: 1300 N 45th St. Web: mcphee.com
Speaking of Birds…
It’s the lazy person’s form of birdwatching: The Bird Buddy, a birdfeeder with an “intelligent” camera. When birds start pecking, the Wi-Fi-enabled camera records them, and an app identifies the species. You can even name regular visitors.
Maybe that all sounds gimmicky, but I tell ya – when a notification comes in, and I get half a minute to watch a chickadee enjoy a meal of seeds? It’s relaxing and borderline therapeutic. You also get a do-gooder feature where you can report (god forbid) injured birds.
Check out Bird Buddy – or Birdbuddy, as they aren’t consistent with their stylizing – on their website. It’s a worthy investment in you and your fair-feathered friends.
This is geniunely delightful. The fact that rubber chicken humor stretches from medieval jesters to Carson's desk really hits home how the dumbest jokes have the longest shelf life. I've dragged friends to weird museums before and there's something beautifull about places that take ridiculous things seriously. Makes me wonder if Archie McPhee knows they're basically preserving comedy history while selling Punching Nuns. Perfect Seattle energy.