Talk:Mike the Headless Chicken

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Mike the Headless Chicken article.
Article policies
Articles for deletion This article was nominated for deletion on November 10 2006. The result of the discussion was keep.
Image:WikiWorld_icon.JPG Mike the Headless Chicken was featured in a WikiWorld cartoon:
(click image to the right for full size version.)

Contents

[edit] AFD Nomination

This article has been marked for deletion as a hoax. Before anyone gets upset remember there is a process that takes place before the article gets deleted. Personally I don't thing the article needs to be deleted or should be. At the very least the festival and the story appear to exist, regardless of whether the story is true. It should be a simple matter to save the article: Just find a reliable source that claims it's a true story. If anyone can find a Guinness link that works, that'd be perfect. Failing that, if the article is reworded to state that a story exists, which may or may not be true, with a festival etc, that'd save the article too.

Best of luck. --HarrisX 02:49, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

You can't be serious. Everyone knows that Mike the Headless Chicken is (or was) real. --Diablorex 20:33, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyright authority - emailed to User:Brookie 6th April 2005

We checked out your website and really like it. There’s some great information and we do have a “Mike” following in the UK. We are giving you permission to copy the www.miketheheadlesschicken.org photographs on that website. I did find one thing we would like you to correct and that is the date of the annual festival. Our first festival was on May 17th which was the 3rd weekend in May, 1999. We continue to have the festival on the 3rd weekend in May, but its not always on the 17th. Let me know when you have completed the changes.

Yvonne Piquette

City of Fruita

email: yp@fruita.org

Information on the festival date corrected and Yvonne emailed to confirm Brookie 16:01, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Institution in Fruita

Mike the Headless Chicken is now an institution in Fruita, and festivals in his honor occur regularly.

What's an institution in Fruita? I'm not familiar with the phrase and/or location. --pjf 09:26, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Fruita refers to Fruita, Colorado, as is referenced in the previous paragraph. "An institution" means something that everybody knows about in a particular community. Some touchstone. RickK 09:59, Nov 20, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] "Mike, Mike - where's your head? Even without it you're not dead!"

What is this quotation? Where does this come from? Lupin 14:30, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I remember singing this in the playground - don't know where it's from though - something from the time? McGnasher 17:25, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
It is one of those things that stick in your mind for ages - goodness knows where it comes from - but seem apposite to poor old Mike - especially in its current abbreviated version! Mike Mike ....Brookie 17:37, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I have been humming that damn phrase all weekend! Mike is haunting me . Aargh.... McGnasher 10:43, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Me also - go away Mike Brookie 19:00, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Was Mike real?

Now just a second... There's no way this is real. I can't believe it! Is there any scientific explanation, or was one ever given? 24.245.29.229

I think the expanation was that a part of his brain stem was still attached, and that enabled him to still do certain things. That's how I remember reading it. Everyking 07:31, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
Yeah, part of the brain stem and also a small part of the brain. Basically, enough brain matter to maintain some semblance of life, since Mike was still able to do things like attempting to crow or preen. With the number of people not believing this article, it looks like a good article to bring up to featured article status for next year's April Fools. :-) --Deathphoenix 13:48, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
Inpossible. If the head was removed, so was the brain, since it's in the top of the head. Otherwise the brain would bungle outside and on top of the neck, along with the blood that feed the brain. In other words, this is a hoax. Nice try uncyclopedia. 213.84.109.51 16:17, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
I'll diarise it! Brookie:The grass on the hill 14:02, 3 May 2005 (UTC)
This story isn't real, is it? There is no way the chicken could have eaten without a head. So is the story an April Fool's joke? Then it should be marked as such. --Yogi de
Oh ye of little faith! This was a proper Chicken who was fed through a pipette! Smile it is not an April fool's joke! A curate's egg 21:32, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)
Mammals control movement primarly from the motor cortex of the cerebrum, but bird mostly control movement from the basal ganglia located near the thalamus. Is there any evidence that the basal ganglia of Mike's brain were left intact? If so, that explains how he was able to walk around, etc. Onemanutopia 17:32, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
Check out a portion of an article featuring a way to "fake" a headless chicken (http://ccca.net/~bsliang/mike-a1.jpg)

[edit] THIS ARTICLE IS A DISGRACE TO THE WORD 'ENCYCLOPEDIA

Look, if the dang story is true, it's pathetic that Wikipedia junkies have let this article stand without so much as an external link to a Scientific American article or something like that on the subject. PATHETIC, PATHETIC, PATHETIC. Posted by anon user: 129.62.170.215

Thank you for your views - actually I think as a light article it is rather good - not everything is for PHd thesises! The curate's egg 06:42, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps their's no links to the Scientific American, because they don't archive their articles back to the 1940s. -- user:zanimum


Now that's what I call trolling Johhny-turbo 21:18, 16 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Encyclopedia?

The tone is fine - it is a light hearted article that's been here a long time

So what? I thought this was supposed to be a serious encyclopedia. How does one recognize "a light hearted article"? Can I insert some "light-hearted text" in the style of

Not quite sure what to do with his by now loose head, on the first night after the decapitation Mike slept with it under his wing; it was this touching tenacity to life and the now redundant organ that convinced Olson to reprieve Mike from the cooking pot.

into George W. Bush or into Superstring theory? Oh, too serious topic? So what about Groucho Marx?

--Mormegil 11:39, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is serious business. --205.146.140.242 16:12, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
the article seems well supported enough to me, and the tone is apropriate to the content. That seems to me the most importan judge of such concerns. 198.137.27.40 18:10, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
I put up the inappropriate tone tag, Just because the subject of the article is light hearted doesn't mean the article should be.Greatigers 23:52, 6 May 2006 (UTC)
Sorry - disagree! Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 12:30, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
Brookie, I must say I'm glad to see there's someone here besides me that think of Wikipedia as more than "just an encyclopedia". It a shame that the admins will stop at nothing to keep it that way.... Chronus Valtiel (talk) 06:18, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] THIS DISGUSTING ARTICLE SHOULD BE DELETED!

This disgusting article should be deleted! This should not be an encyclopedic article. Not only is this case of this poor chicken a horrible animal rights abuse, it also damges WIKIPEDIA's image by even putting it as an encyclopedic article.

It's a weird world - there's room for all here. Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 14:57, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
There's an article about Hitler, so why not the story of an unfortunate chicken? --Ravi12346 06:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
the article is highly appropriate for Wikipedia. It is of historic significance --Diablorex 20:37, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
No! This article is intresting and informative. It should be kept. I had no idea that this was possible until I stumbled upon this article. I do not understand why it should be deleted simply because it is about a chicken that was mistreated. IMOHO spreading information about past mistakes (and sufferings) makes it possible to avoid similar mistakes again in the future. /Magnus

This wasn't animal abuse it was just a guy trying to impress his wife's mother is that wrong?


Mike..... I LOVE you you little bird-brained.... uhhhhh.... semi-bird-brained little bundle of lovin'. May you crow loud and proud up there in chicken heaven. Sniff. I love you, Mike.Obbop 17:14, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't see anything wrong with it. If you believe it should be deleted, report it. Good friend100 02:43, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
Wikipedia is NOT CENSORED, and I wonder why you searched for headless chicken. Zanusi 10:58, 5 October 2007 (UTC)

"A horrible animal rights abuse..." Not really. Taken from the article: Being headless did not keep Mike from putting on weight; at the time of his beheading he weighed two and a half pounds, but at the time of his death this had increased to nearly eight pounds. Doesn't sound like he had too bad of a life, considering that his fate was supposed to be a cooking pot.  :) Naglfar or Gleipnir? (talk) 15:27, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Olson or Olsen?

All of the external links say the owner's name was Olsen. Can anyone verify this? --Ravi12346 06:50, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Going from the official website I guess it is spelt with an "e" - I have changed the article spellings Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 07:31, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] DYI?

So umm... any leads to a source with info on how to make your own survivable headless chicken? I'm sure this thought has crossed more minds than my own. --70.251.91.6 05:34, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Cut as high up on the head as you can without crushing the skull, to try not to destroy the autonomous part of the chicken's nervous system. You may have to practice a bit, it'd be easier to practice if you own a chicken farm, of course, and different breeds of chickens may be better suited than others. I've heard it's not unusual for chickens not to die immediately upon decapitation. Tubezone 04:34, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
Not immediately, no. "Running around like a chicken with its head cut off" is even an expression, but cases such as Mike must be rather rare for the bird to achieve such fame. Also: ew! --Kizor 18:53, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Moved the article

...to show that it's actually nonsense. This story got famous mostly becouse it was such a very good photo manipulation. Take a good look and you'll see that it's pre-pre-pre-photoshop from the times that they photoshopped with invisible tape, scissors and a re-photograph of the result. Pee-Tor 20:38, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

Shouldn't this page be moved to a subpage of WP:BJAODN instead? -- Puckdude 01:29, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
Absolutely! Pee-Tor 10:31, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
You're right, it should actually be moved to Uncyclopedia! Pee-Tor 12:02, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

It did happened. Iamhungey 00:20, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

It's things like this that prove to me how stubborn people are. Even when something has been proven to exist you constantly deny it anyway. It makes me wonder who the crazy people in the world really are.... Chronus Valtiel (talk) 06:15, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Apri1 1

This wouldn't be a bad article for the main page on April 1, 2007. It reads well and is ... funny, in the appropriate sort of way.  :) Antandrus (talk) 04:53, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

It would be great. If it were a joke. Chronus Valtiel (talk) 06:13, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hoax/true

The current article gives the impression that this is true story. But is remains unclear of this is so. This should be cleared up. --Walter 20:30, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Maybe someone could contact University of Utah about this [1] Best an Amercian can do that. --Walter 20:33, 12 June 2007 (UTC)
And email has been send by a Wikinewsie, waiting for responds --Walter 19:18, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Of course it's true you non-believers! Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 12:16, 10 July 2007 (UTC)

There are several cited reliable references confirming the story is true. I suggest the morons still saying Mike was a hoax use their eyes to look at these references. MIKE IS REAL! Willy turner 04:02, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

All of you pimple faced imbiciles spending your time pontificating about 'Mike the headless chicken' need to get a life. You are all addicted to editing and spending your time on nonsense. And you do it for free! In a way - you are all headless!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.44.43.187 (talk) 14:30, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Excessive images

Why does this article have four nonfree images? I can see the benefit of a picture to illustrate the chicken, but the second and third seem redundant. I don't see what the purpose of including the logo is - we don't have a logo for Boston marathon for example. This logo could be replaced by a free photo of the chicken festival. — Carl (CBM · talk) 23:19, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree. Go ahead and remove some. -- Rob C. alias Alarob 23:21, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
What's the harm in the pics? Leave them all. Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! (Whisper...) 04:38, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
WP:NFCC#3 "As little non-free content as possible is used in an article.". — Carl (CBM · talk) 13:06, 24 August 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Boy chicken

isnt a male chicken a rooster? is this a female name mike? if so why does article refer to it as a he?♠♦Д narchistPig♥♣ (talk) 02:19, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

Because he was called Mike The Headless Chicken, the article title isn't a discription, its the creatures name.☯Ferdia O'Brien (T)/(C) 03:09, 21 March 2008 (UTC)
Hens are girl chickens, roosters are boy chickens, but both sexes are chickens. According to the article, Mike was a rooster. --CliffC (talk) 03:15, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Bingo? unlikely

I say that some one should delete the vulgar "bingo event" mention, especially in the light of it needing citation! It is obviously not true, and just an attempt to draw attention by making up something vulgar.69.210.142.103 (talk) 21:08, 30 April 2008 (UTC)