055. Fowl Calculations

usedbooks on Oct. 11, 2009

I chose chickens for this strip not because they are the “exception to the rule.” There are plenty of apparently simple diploid organisms with more chromosomes than human beings. Dogs have as many as chickens. A species of crayfish has 100 pairs. Several plant species have even more than that. That is sort of the “lesson” behind this strip. Never make assumptions. Humans like to claim superlatives in the animal kingdom but by claiming things like genome size correlates to complexity or equating brain size to intelligence or other non-supported generalizations, we just end up looking foolish.

The reason I chose chickens from the long list of chromosomatically-superior organisms is because the chicken is inherently funny – and evil.

Gelotology is still up for review, so please go leave your critique! There's very little activity there now, and I'd love some feedback about what jokes work, what don't how I can improve, etc.

Gelotology's one year anniversary is this Saturday! *Throws confetti.* I feel accomplished. I wasn't sure I'd come up with enough material to last a whole year, and yet I managed to prove me wrong. ^_^