Take the Chicken Challenge...

June 21, 2002 8:34 PM

Take the Chicken Challenge... win $10,000 by playing Tic-Tac-Toe against a live chicken at the Tropicana casino in Las Vegas. (Or join the PETA protest against it.) I think being exposed to Phyllis Diller is worse for the chicken than playing Tic-Tac-Toe, and besides, the chicken is winning.
posted by kirkaracha (20 comments total)

Hey, I saw that chicken the other day. Didn't take him on, though. Figured I couldn't handle the shame if he won.
posted by rushmc at 8:43 PM on June 21, 2002

I suspect fowl play.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:55 PM on June 21, 2002

I suspect fowl play.

Best...comment...ever.
posted by bdk3clash at 9:00 PM on June 21, 2002

Chicken goes first you can't win. You can draw, but not win. Would some mind showing the mathmatical proof as to why you can't (I don't know what it is, I just know to always bet on the chicken).
posted by geoff. at 10:40 PM on June 21, 2002

Um. Geoff, you're assuming that the chicken knows how to play tic-tac-toe. I mean, that's a rather large assumption, no? Most chickens I've seen aren't exactly mental giants. Even with the best cocaine (or whatever chickens respond well to in training), it would be hard to program every tic-tac-toe game into a chicken. And you're certainly not going to teach it strategy.
posted by whatnotever at 10:52 PM on June 21, 2002

Even a chicken can learn a simple, simple strategy. Tic-tac-toe is only 3x3. If it learns only a few moves then it should beat him. The reason why humans don't always tie is because we try to play physcological tricks on the other person. That or some are just really stupid.
posted by geoff. at 10:56 PM on June 21, 2002

<charlie daniels band> chicken in the bread pan pickin' out dough... </charlie daniels band>
posted by crunchburger at 11:32 PM on June 21, 2002

If you believe everything you read on the net, you'll find that the chicken is rigged.
posted by majick at 6:10 AM on June 22, 2002

If I was to play against that chicken, I'll bring me an egg, crack it open and eat it raw in front of it. That'll un-nerve whatever Ninja Tic-Tac-Toe training the chook has had. I'd imagine it'd be the equivalent of witnessing a baby-eating, and he/she'll probably forget to take one of the corner spaces after taking the center. Mmm raw egg.
posted by aki at 6:27 AM on June 22, 2002

There are only three starting moves in tic-tac-toe. Corner, middle, side. Each starting move has a countering move which will easily turn the game into a draw. It'd be easier to train the chickens to go second and let people have a first shot.

That is if you can really train chickens to play tic-tac-toe.
posted by Apoch at 6:28 AM on June 22, 2002

Each starting move has a countering move which will easily turn the game into a draw. It'd be easier to train the chickens to go second and let people have a first shot.

That would require the chicken to memorize a complex set of moves and counter moves. But as long as the chicken moves first and makes his first two moves in corner squares, you'll never win.

Usually, he (or she) will never even need to know enough to block you, since you'd be on defense the whole time. There's probably an even simpler rule, but I don't know what it is.
posted by oddovid at 9:15 AM on June 22, 2002

I think the chicken would be a her, not a him; and the eggs you buy at the store are unfertilized: factory chickens ain't seen no cock.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:34 AM on June 22, 2002

They sell fertilized chicken eggs in Safeway... blech
posted by zeoslap at 9:50 AM on June 22, 2002

There's probably an even simpler rule

Yeah, like "peck at the 'control panel' whenever a bit of seed appears, and let the computer do the tic-tac-toe playing for you".
posted by ook at 10:52 AM on June 23, 2002

I'm still laughing at "foul play".
posted by dong_resin at 12:02 PM on June 23, 2002

"Look, Marge, I'm a chicken!"

Marge: "I know, I know..."

Sorry -- anytime there's a chicken story, Homer's excited boast to Marge just seems appropriate.

That PETA protest is stunning in its stupidity; if I didn't believe that they were truly intent on subordinating humans to earthworms and sheep, they'd be laughable.
posted by davidmsc at 10:21 PM on June 23, 2002

Do they count the draw as a loss? Or do you get to play until someone loses?
posted by banished at 7:14 AM on June 24, 2002

"Look, Marge, I'm a chicken!"

Marge: "I know, I know..."

Anybody got an episode number for that bit?
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:44 AM on June 24, 2002

It's episode 2F09, Stav, "Homer the Great."



Bart: Dad, remember those self-hypnosis courses we took to help us ignore Grampa?

Homer: Do I ever! It's five years later and I _still_ think I'm a chicken. I'm a chicken, Marge!

Marge: I know, I know.
posted by Skot at 8:53 AM on June 24, 2002

Thanks Skot!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:41 PM on June 24, 2002