MovieChat Forums > Sleeper (1973) Discussion > "That's a big chicken."

"That's a big chicken."

posted 9 years ago by MadSimian
3 replies | jump to latest

Netflix has recently put up several of Allen's older movies and I was rewatching this just now. Was just wondering...in the scene where Miles is stealing the huge fruit/vegetables and sees the humungous chicken, I get this feeling that the line original entailed the use of a certain other word for chicken which is, in and of itself, quite innocuous but, coming from Allen, means something else altogether. lol As the scene is, the humor of it falls flat particularly in a Allen comedy where sexual innuendo is right at home.

Anyone know if my gut feeling is right i.e. the scene is as I assume but was changed/cut to avoid a higher rating? Or, at least, feel the same as I do?

The future belongs to those of us still willing to get our hands dirty. SaschaKonietzko

[–] Blueghost 9 years ago

I've not seen the netflix disc, but the DVD I have shows the film as I remember it from years back.

[–] Johnny_Drama9 8 years ago

No, it wasn't changed. The original word is "chicken". 

[–] [email protected] 8 years ago

Frankly, I think that line, delivered by a guy hefting a banana and celery stalk the size of a canoe, is just a bit of 'well, I'm not surprised at anything anymore' broad understatement. Besides, chickens are inherently funny - even the word is funny.

You're right in thinking a sexual double meaning would be too low-level grade school humor for Allen. With sex, he's either very direct, as when he tells Annie Hall "Don't knock masturbation, it's sex with someone I love!", or subtle, as here when super-WASPish Luna and Erno, role-playing his parents at the dinner table, admonish him "Quit whining and eat your shiksa!"