- Pants knows. Pants has always known.
by E. Al Pants
Relax, I've got the answer to the Chicken and egg conundrum�
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? People debate this like children, or present it as an unanswerable question so they can look intelligent to their friends, but the truth is, it's no puzzle at all, so just shut up about it. The egg came first.
Any moron knows that all organisms proceed in growth from a simple cell, a fertilized embryo, basically, your egg. Ah, but you say an egg has to come from a chicken, but you're WRONG! Scientists will soon be able to do what was done by happy accident in the primordial pools of the young earth and the first gurglings of evolution - create DNA directly from its component molecules. The first organisms were simple cells, eggs in their own way, and the evolved into, or begat, more complex organisms. So the long view of evolution follows the pattern of a single life, a complex organism, or chubby chicken, is derived from a single cell, or EGG.
Of course some don't believe in evolution, (or more specifically, the Darwinian view of life's origins) and to them, it might seem correct that complex organisms were created first and so, for them the chicken came first. I guess I cannot argue that, as I was not there at the time, but in full avoidance of the whole God versus Evolution thingy, I will say that it's interesting that these religious or spiritual models seem to be reflected in the preferred Egg/Chicken solution. Those who prefer the Big Bang/Evolution argument often see the universe beginning from the hatching of a great cosmic egg, while the God people see the universe being birthed from (an inexplicably male) God. This conundrum seems to apply to many beliefs (if you group them into unfair stereotypes)�
JUDEO/CHRISTIANITY (creationism) - The Chicken came first.
ATHEISM (Darwinism) - The Egg came first.
NEOPAGANISM/EARTH RELIGIONS - Neither is first - the cycle has no beginning or end.
HINDUISM - The Egg awaits within you.
MATRIX - There is no Egg
So, I suppose it's a riddle meant to reveal how one sees the cycles of the universe. Big fucking deal, the egg still comes first. So, I'm glad we've gotten that out of the way. Now we can address a more important and relevant conundrum, the first great conundrum of television and how it changed TV forever�
How could Mork from Ork reference Anson Williams when Anson Williams played Potsie on Happy Days, the show from which Mork and Mindy was a spin-off?!
Yes it's true, one of the most mind-blowing conundrums on seventies television occurred when Robin Williams, in a typically hyper riff of pop-culture references, compared someone to Anson Williams. At the time this occurred, I thought "He can't do that!," and my grade school brain was operating at maximum, desperately trying to figure out the ramifications of such a statement, as if the very universe might be snuffed out under the weight of this impossible disruption of television's time-space continuum.
You must remember that this was seventies television and with the few exceptions of Saturday Night Live and SCTV, nobody had the sophistication to deal with a pop medium being so flagrantly self-referential. You can't reference a celebrity whose stardom is directly attributed to your own reality - you are all but acknowledging your own fiction! Clearly Robin Williams had made a grave error and the editors missed it. I was in hell for weeks, perhaps months, trying to figure out the ramifications of this shift in the sitcom universe.
I came up with two options. Either Mork was ignoring the fact that Anson Williams was an actor, focusing on his fame as a singer (the reference had to do with his singing, and I could swear Anson Williams had released an album at the height of his Happy Days fame) or this, and all related shows (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Joanie Loves Chachi), were in an alternate universe where the television shows were entirely different, and they just happened to have a celebrity named Anson Williams who was in a show called "Cheerful Days" or something.
Well, I thought I had a fair handle on the possibilities, but I was not prepared for what Mork did next. On a subsequent episode, Mork met Robin Williams*!!! This confirmed that the show had an utter and unprecedented disregard for the traditional safe-buffer zone that existed between television and reality. Of course, in this episode, Robin Williams (the character) was a tired-looking and somewhat dour standup comedian who may or may not have had a hit TV series, but the event was still insanely confusing to those of us who had been brought up with an insulated TV reality that never got invaded by current events or real-world characters (cameos from non-actor celebrities notwithstanding), and I knew at the time, in my little grade school brain, that this would change TV as we knew it. And, along with silicone breast enhancements, it sure did.
But the question still remains to this day. Which came first, Anson Williams (Happy Days' celebrated chicken) or Mork's Egg?
- E.A.P.
* I checked the Internet Movie Database to see if Robin Williams was credited for a guest appearance on his own show (he was), and noticed that a supporting character in that episode was played by Rance Howard, father of Ron Howard. The madness never ends!!!