NY Times Brings Anastos's Chicken Back From The Dead

Did you read the NY Times profile piece on newsman Ernie Anastos? In it, the paper puts him face-to-face with his famous on-air fumble, at which point Anastos suggested a rehash of the "dead story" did not belong in the piece... but the Gray Lady disagreed! So there are many paragraphs dedicated to getting down to the bottom of WTF he meant exactly, when he said "Keep fucking that chicken" during the September 16th broadcast last year.

Anastos explained that anything revolving around the weather report is “kind of a play area,” and when they went off air, "We thought nothing of it... no one said anything." (Though Dari Alexander's reaction spoke volumes!) He says it wasn't until he awoke the next morning to an internet filled with his gaffe that he thought, "Wow, did this really happen? Is this a joke?" He explains that he's certain he said "plucking," and pondered the origin of the remark saying, “My grandmother, she would have a live chicken. I would pluck the chicken. I would help her out.” Right. Well, "keep fucking that chicken" lives in 2010! And that's a good thing.

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By Jen Carlson in News on February 1, 2010 12:10 PM

Comments [rss]

jaycjay

""Keep Fucking That Chicken" is an old phrase from the 60s."

Never heard it before, and I bet Ernie hadn't either.

It's very clear what he meant to say, based on the sentence that preceded that one: "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast." That was a clear reference to the Perdue Chicken commercial where the line is "it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken." That followed a forecast of unseasonably mild weather -- the tender forecast.

It was clearly a reference to Perdue Chicken's catch phrase: "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken."

The "tough man" referred to in the commercials is Frank Perdue, who -- whether directly or indirectly -- has plucked a lot of chickens. Ernie was attempting to joke that weatherman Nick Gregory was like another Frank Perdue, a tough man making tender things.

The NY Times, really, failed in not mentioning that commercial in their "many paragraphs" about the incident.

And yeah, there weren't really "many paragraphs" there -- it's really a small part of the article, but I'll play along with another Gothamist exaggeration/distortion.

S.K.

Looks liek The Times is becoming a tabloid.

Sommelier

One slip of the lip in how many years? Ernie Anastos is a class act, and gets a pass. If he starts saying something like that every night, though... Wait a minute! Even if that was all he ever said, it would still be more entertaining than anything Howard Stern has ever done!

cucarachita

as someone who studied structural linguistics, I can tell you how easy it is for a word that ends in a "p" followed by a word that begins in "pl" can turn the "pl" word into an "f". The same parts of the mouth are used (all those labio-dental consonants).

Try saying 'keep plucking those chickens" ten times fast and you'll see.

yes, it was funny, but it was totally innocent. He did not say "keep fucking those chickens." Maybe his lips said it, but he didn't.

;)

nicemarmot

I thought you waited until chickens were dead to pluck them?

JenChungsBaby

I bet a lot of people who ate at Ernie's grandmother's house are wondering about that chicken right about now.

hotstepper

nice.

SonofTheSniper

"Keep Fucking That Chicken" is an old phrase from the 60s. I am continually surprised that people are confused by its meaning (especially The Times)! It basically means, "your doing this job, do it" in an "I'm just gonna stand by and watch you self-destruct" kind of way. Like, if somebody gets in a hissy fit and says they are going to do a task, which subsequently turns out harder than expected, you say, "Hey, I'm not the one fuckin' this chicken... you are!" or Ernie's version, "Keep fucking that chicken".

Definitely NOT "plucking". That is not the famous phrase.

babyhitler

Actually it's older than the 60's. I believe it was used in the times of the Bard and it went something like "Wilt thou'st bugger thy chicken pon yonder"