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TV For Chickens

2009-09-28 · John · watch on YouTube · Pop culture · reflection essay

John describes artist Tea Mäkipää's 'TV for chickens', a video that calms hens raised in dark farms, and argues it shows contemporary art can raise real questions: about what TV does to humans and whether it is better to have miserable chickens or none at all.

What is said

00:00:00 — TV for chickens as a band name; dating Sarah and contemporary art shows; contemporary art thought stupid

  • ★ John says that when he and Sarah (the Yeti) started dating he had to attend contemporary art shows he knew nothing about, secretly wishing for regular dates. (playful) — 00:00:00 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★ John says it is normal in today's culture to think contemporary art is stupid, but that there is in fact a lot of good and interesting contemporary art. — 00:00:00

00:00:40 — Tea Mäkipää's TV for chickens: hens in dark farms watch chickens outdoors and become calmer

  • ★★ John says Sarah is working with the artist Tea Mäkipää, who is Finnish, lives in Germany and has an exhibition in Indiana. — 00:00:40 · Sarah Urist Green, Indiana
  • ★★★ John says Mäkipää's project, a few years ago, showed thousands of hens that had lived their whole lives in a dark farm a TV show of chickens outdoors doing chicken stuff. — 00:00:40
  • ★★ John says the hen farm gives the chickens no personal space and keeps them in the dark, never seeing daylight, to keep them calm. — 00:00:40
  • ★★★ John says the chickens love the show: it makes them less anxious, less likely to peck at themselves and much less likely to kill other chickens. (playful) — 00:01:09

00:01:38 — What TV does to chickens and humans; eating eggs; chickens would go extinct; art asks questions

  • ★★ John says chickens killing other chickens is apparently a huge problem on chicken farms. (playful) (hedged) — 00:01:38
  • ★★★ John says TV for chickens makes chickens more passive and more likely to accept their bad lives, and wonders what TV does for humans. — 00:01:38
  • ★ John jokes that angry YouTube commenters need to watch more TV to wash off their aggression. (joke) — 00:01:38 · YouTube
  • ★★★ John suggests that if chickens need TV to avoid killing each other, maybe he shouldn't eat so many eggs, but calls that response inadequately complex. (hedged) — 00:01:38
  • ★★★ John says if everyone stopped eating eggs and chickens, chickens would go extinct: their natural defenses have been bred out, and they exist only because they are delicious. (playful) — 00:02:08
  • ★★★ John says TV for chickens, which may not first have seemed like a great art piece, turns out to ask all kinds of interesting questions. — 00:02:08
  • ★★★ John asks Hank and Nerdfighters a non-rhetorical question: which is it to be, a world where chickens need TV for chickens to avoid homicidal psychosis, or a world with no chickens at all? — 00:02:08 · Nerdfighteria, Hank Green

00:02:37 — End of the non-rhetorical question; plug for tomorrow's paperback winners; the Yeti and the second button

  • ★★ John says he will announce several exciting things tomorrow, including the winners of the Paper Towns paperbacks. — 00:02:37 · Paper Towns

Humor (significant)

  • John names the topic of the video. — 00:00:00 > «TV for chickens, which, by the way, would be a great name for a band.»
  • Dating Sarah, John sat through contemporary art like a lady licking her own feet, feigning interest while wishing for regular dates. — 00:00:00 > «other places where people don't lick their toes in public»
  • TV makes chickens passive and less murderous; John thinks of angry YouTube commenters. — 00:01:38 > «dude, you need to watch more TV. It'll wash that homicidal aggression right off you.»
  • John asked the Yeti whether to unbutton his second button to bring sex appeal to Nerdfighteria. — 00:02:37 > «sweetie, you know I love you, but you're just not a two buttons kind of guy.»

Threads in this video

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