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Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to "the other side."

Now you can take this one of two ways. Either the chicken simply wants to arrive on the other side of the road, or he is suicidal and wants to reach the afterlife.

This is where my confusion sets in. According to a Wikipedia article, "The first known printing of this riddle was in 1847."

I'd like to know the origin of the phrase "the other side" being used to mean the afterlife.

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  • According to which Wikipedia article? There are several million of them.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 11:40
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    I would have to believe that "the other side", in the sense of "the afterlife", has been re-invented many times in many cultures. It is an obvious analogy, and, as Andy suggests, alludes to crossing some boundary or border, such as a river.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 14:43
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    I seriously doubt that the old riddle/joke is intended to refer to "the afterlife". In fact, this is the first time I've ever seen this suggested, in my 65 years. (And I likely first heard the joke when I was about 10.)
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jan 1, 2015 at 14:45

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While dubious that the other side has the double meaning you suggest, it originates in the Greek myth of Charon and the river Styx.

The Styx was the boundary of "Hades, the land of the dead, [which was] on the other side."

See, for example http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Kharon.html

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The oldest instance in print that I've been able to find of “the other side” in the context of death and the afterlife is from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible written c. 1710.

The doctrine of the immortality of believers laid down, John 8:51...The property of death is so altered to them that they do not see it as death, they do not see the terror of death, it is quite taken off; their sight does not terminate in death, as theirs does who live by sense; no, they look so clearly, so comfortably, through death, and beyond death, and are so taken up with their state on the other side death, that they overlook death, and see it not.

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A phrase similar to this can be found in John Bunyan's widely circulated book Pilgrim's Progress from 1684:

When the Day that he must go hence, was come, many accompanied him to the River side, into which, as he went, he said, Death, where is thy Sting... So he passed over, and the Trumpets sounded for him on the other side.

More information can be found here: https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/278600.html

It seems reasonable that this widely circulated book having a similar phrase, albeit different, in reference to death could have led to the chicken joke being funny to 1847 listners.

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  • I thought the reference was to an English music-hall impresario who wanted to hire some striptease artists from the Continent, so he took the ferry across the Channel and had the strippers audition for him in Calais. "So he passed Dover, and the strumpets undid for him on the other side."
    – tautophile
    Commented Aug 10, 2018 at 23:36

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