The Sky Is Falling

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Chicken Licken redirects here. For the South African restaurant chain, see Chicken Licken (restaurant).

The Sky is Falling, also known as Chicken Little, Chicken Licken or Henny Penny is an old fable of unknown origin about a chicken who believes the sky is falling. The phrase has also become used to indicate a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.

Contents

1 Origin
2 Basic plot
3 Characters
4 Adaptations

4.1 Books
4.2 Movies
4.3 Television

5 Modern references
6 External links

Origin

Although sometimes mistakenly listed as one of Aesop's Fables, the origin of the story is obscure. The basic motif and many of the elements of the tale can be found in one of the stories in the Jataka, a large body of folklore dating from the third century A.D. that is associated with the Theravada Buddhist tradition. However, that version features a rabbit as the central character rather than a chicken.

Basic plot

There are many versions of the story, but the basic premise is that a chicken called Chicken Licken eats lunch one day, and believes the sky is falling down because an acorn falls on her head. She decides to tell Squirmy Wormy, and on her journey meets other animals who join him in his quest. In most retellings, the other animals have similarly rhyming names. Finally, they come across Dr. Foxy Loxy, a fox who helps Chicken Licken get better.

After this point, there are many endings. In the most famous one, Dr. Foxy Loxy helps all of her sick friends get better, but the last one survives enough to warn Chicken Licken and he escapes. Other endings include The doctor eating them all; the characters being saved by a squirrel or an owl and getting to speak to Squirmy Wormy; the characters being saved by the King's hunting dogs; even one version in which the sky actually falls and kills Dr. Foxy Loxy.

Depending on the version, the moral changes. In the "happy ending" version, the moral is not to be a "Chicken Licken" and have courage. In other versions the moral is usually interpreted to mean "do not believe everything you are told". In the latter case, it could well be a cautionary political tale: Chicken Licken jumps to a conclusion and whips the populace into mass hysteria, which the unscrupulous fox uses to manipulate them for his own benefit.

Characters

As it is common in fables, all the characters in this tale are animals. They all have rhyming names.

Chicken Licken (Chicken)
Henny Penny (Hen)
Cocky Locky (Rooster)
Ducky Lucky (Duck)
Officer Loosey Goosey (Goose)
Turkey Lurkey (Turkey)
Dr. Foxy Loxy (Fox)
Squirmy Wormy (Worm)
Holey Moley (Mole)

Adaptations

Books

The Sky is Falling has been made into a myriad of children books, having both Chicken Little and Henny Penny as main characters.

The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales includes a long parody of the story.

Movies

Walt Disney Studios has made two animated versions of the story:
*A first adaptation was an animated short released during World War II. It tells a variant of the parable in which all the animals are eaten by Foxy Loxy, and uses this as an allegory for the idea that wartime fear-mongering weakens the war effort and costs lives.
*The second Disney adaptation is a feature-length computer-animated film which bears little resemblance to the plot of the original fable being more of a follow up.

Television

The animated series Garfield and Friends adaptated the story for the U.S. Acres segment "Badtime Story". Throughout the story, the characters (played by regulars on the series) blame the sky's falling on "all this tampering with the ozone layer".
, did a version of the story.
An episode of the sitcom The Golden Girls featured the girls performing a brief musicalization of "Henny Penny" at an elementary school, decked out in feathery costumes.

Modern references

The fable is referred to in many modern shows and movies.

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody episode "Hotel Hangout", on which Carey Martin says to Marion Moseby, "Mr. Moseby, every little problem with you is like, 'The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" Then a satellite dish falls from the roof and Marion Moseby replies, "Sometimes Chicken Little knows what he's talking about!"
The Season Five American Idol contestant Kevin Covais has been nicknamed Chicken Little shortly before his elimination.
British band Radiohead use the line "Go and tell the King that the sky is falling in" from Chicken Licken in their song "2+2=5" taken from the album Hail to the Thief.
"Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey, Ducky Lucky, Chicken Licken, it seems they are all an the move when the sun is falling in" is a line from the song "Moving in with" by British band Happy Mondays
Sky is Falling is a song by British indie rock band James.

Chicken Licken is also mentioned in the Aerosmith song 'Livin' on the Edge' with the lyrics 'if chicken liken tells you that the sky is falling'

External links

[SurLaLune Fairy Tale Site, Henny-Penny] as collected by Joseph Jacobs
[The Cock and Hen That Went to the Dovrefell] a Norwegian varriant
[Happy Ending Version]
[Chicken saves himself Version]
[Henny Penny saves herself Version]
[The Sky Falls Down Version]

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