Dear Editor,
Thanks to Rebecca Kellogg for her excellent article on myths at BYU. But the fact is that Myth #4 is no myth: Brigham Young still does the funky chicken. As my father, a BYU alumnus, taught me, you have to run past the ASB on the more-or-less diagonal path between the JKHB and Brigham Square at night. The dark window frames of the ASB, when viewed around and through Brother Brigham’s legs, create the illusion that he is, in fact, doing the funky chicken.
You may need to repeat the run a couple of times before you can see the effect. But be warned: do not run into the park benches that BYU has carelessly placed in your path. Also keep in mind that the sight of the American Moses doing the funky chicken is so sublimely hilarious that you will quickly lose the little breath you have left after doing all that running. Any ensuing loss of consciousness may not be easy to explain to an insurance company.
During my time at BYU, I have been shocked to discover how few BYU students have heard that President Young does the funky chicken, much less seen it for themselves. The same could be said for the aquarium in the bottom floor of the
Widtsoe building. It is every BYU student’s responsibility to learn the mythology surrounding this university and transmit it wholly and accurately to the mini-Cougars they roll around campus in strollers. If we lose this precious knowledge, what will BYU become? Some sort of boarding school for Mormons?
Whether our kids know what the funky chicken is or not is their own problem.
Christian Wright
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
