Where's the Joke

I've mentioned before that there is nothing more white than analysis. But that doesn't make it wrong.
Anyway a joke:

Q:'why did the chicken cross the road?'
A:'to get to the other side'

To paraphrase Mark Twain I recently realised this joke is funnier than it sounds.
Because its a question of where rather than what.
It's cracking me up right now.
And it also perplexes me to the functioning of the human mind, how little we know.
Sure I could write opinion about fancy expensive advetising like Harvard*.
Instead though I'd like to look at this ancient badass meme of a joke because it is a badass that has managed to perpetute itself farther affield than many, what one could consider more worthy samples of humour.

So firstly just picture two people, two people who presumably have jobs, loved ones, burdens on there mind, places to be, things to do etc. Any two people for that matter and one of them asks 'Why did the chicken cross the road?'
You see in my mind, the joke has already happened.
Because the one that doesn't ask the joke is faced with this question, and faced with this question will make a number of assumptions... possibly including but not limited to...

1. There is a good reason for asking this question.
2. I presumably could deduce the answer.
3. Given 2, there must be a logical motivation for the chicken to cross the road.
4. If there isn't though there must be some ironic twist.
5. Assuming 1 and 4, this must somehow relate to our present situation.

And this may take a couple of seconds, or maybe even half a minute, before the askee asks the asker with optional confession:

'I don't know why?'

Really maybe though this is two confessions, the 'I don't know' is a confession to not having the mental capacity to explain why the chicken crossed the road.
The 'why?' confesses that you actually consider 'why did the chicken cross the road?' a relevant and logical question.
Then when the asker tells the askee 'To get to the other side.' it all unravels in the askee's mind.

1. Well that is plainly self evident.
2. The chicken is completely irrelevant, it could have been anything, why the fuck did he ask about a chicken, specifically?
3. If he knew the answer why did he ask the question?
4. That has nothing to do with our current circumstances.
5. What a complete waste of time.
6. I thought it would be something else, I thought there was a logical reason to ask that question, when in fact there was none.

And all of this, somehow mysteriously culminates into a reaction, which some may find amusing.
I was in Beijing with Parky and his lovely girlfriend whom I shall call Nadia because she was russian and I've forgotten her name.
And parky said to me 'How much farther do you want to stay here?' which was a stupider mangling of english than the ESL students and friends I'd spent the past 3 and a half months hanging around with.
And I found this amusing too. Because it was inane.
You see to me, the joke contained within the seemingly perplexing question 'why did the chicken cross the road?' is in the asking of a question at all, a question that tricks someone into expecting insight, or even humour but contains neither.
Similar to the 'Why did they bury the fireman on the hill?' joke works on the exact same principle 'because he was dead.' but the fireman question to me seems to have a certain blunt sophistication to it that the chicken joke lacks, and therefore is inferior because of its sophistication.
Taking the same principle and adding value are the very wrong series of baby jokes, probably the starting point** being 'what's blue and at the bottom of a pool?' like the chicken joke the askee is left with a question that they might assume has a logical answer they can deduce, but just as knowing the chicken's motivations are unknowable so too is the question so devoid of detail that one could never confidently arrive at an answer. The reveal of 'A dead baby.' is both humourous in its inanity but also because it is unexpectedly graphic and horrible, planting a really unpleasant image in the mind that leaves you with the question 'how is that a joke?' and precicely that thought is what makes it funny.

And in that I think is a positive message to carry with us for the rest of our lives. Much better than 'Buy land they aren't making any more of it.' was the a different insight by the same man 'mankind has only one really effective weapon against evil, laughter' by Marky Mark Twain. The quotes aren't exact because I can't be bothered looking them up.
But I'm thankful that in some darwinian sense somewhere humanity required a universal gene that allowed us to laugh in the face of our logic being confounded. That the unexpected bring us pleasure may be our single greatest offering to life.