History Main / ChickenAndEggParadox

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', an anvil is required to make a forge and a forge is required to make an anvil. There is a [[MemeticMutation meme among the players about where the first anvil came from]], since no dwarf would be able to build the forge to create the first anvil. In gameplay terms, embarking without an anvil carries a risk, as you'll dependent on a trader having one for sale in order to perform any blacksmithing.

* In ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear Strive'', the game's BigBad, Happy Chaos, brings up the paradox to describe himself, and goes further by presenting a seemingly nonsensical answer: "The omelette came first". Combined with his catchphrase, "I am X, or Y. But I do exist", it could be taken to mean that Chaos's origins are irrelevant to his present insane state, in the same way chickens and eggs only really matter as food.

** The games have a sidequest in which you have to help 2 [=NPCs=] named Bippin and Blossom raise their son. Depending on the choices you make, the child might at one point ask you if the [[CallARabbitASmeerp cucco]] or egg came first, responding "But what did it hatch from?" if you tell him "Cucco" or "But what laid the egg?" if you tell him "Egg".
** ''Oracle of Ages'' has a couple opportunities to combine it with TimeTravel to create a BootstrapParadox. One part of the ChainOfDeals to get the Noble Sword is to trade for a Goron's family heirloom; you then trade this vase to his ancestor in the past, which the ancestor then passes down to his descendants, creating a vase of infinite age with no point of origin.
* In ''VideoGame/SevenDaysToDie'', this is a DownplayedTrope with regards to a wrench. To [[ItemCrafting craft a wrench]], the player needs mechanical parts, but the easiest way to get mechanical parts is to disassemble machinery - which requires a wrench. However, wrenches themselves can occasionally be looted, and mechanical parts can sometimes be found by looting hardware stores.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Lorien, one of the {{Precursors}} in the series, once muses, "Words have meaning and names have power. The universe begun with a word, you know. But which came first: the word, or the thought behind the word? You can't create language without thought, and you can't conceive a thought without language. So which created the other and, thus, created the universe?"

* ''LightNovel/TorturePrincessFremdTorturchen'': Demons must be summoned into the world using a ritual that involves demon flesh. It takes a while for anybody to notice the contradiction this raises: how did the ''first'' demon get summoned? [[spoiler:This is answered in volumes 4 through 6: the Butcher delivered the demon meat to summon the "first" demon from the hands of the Suffering Saint, who had created the world via a contract with "God" after destroying the last one with "Diablo"--respectively the natural forces of creation and destruction, the latter of which demons are fragments of.]]

* In one of his apologetic writings, Creator/CSLewis points out that philosophical/cosmic evolutionism (the idea that everything always evolves to ever increasing complexity; his only comment about the theory of evolution is that it's the best explanation we have right now but that doesn't mean it's actually what happened and refers to scientists who believe in it as the only viable alternative to special creation as "amateur philosophers") is only believable when you accidentally or intentionally ignore either the cyclical nature of life or that many simple ideas actually descended from complex ones (he mentions chicken and egg, acorn and tree, rocket designs, and civilizations).

* In one of his apologetic writings, C.S. Lewis points out that philosophical/cosmic evolutionism (the idea that everything always evolves to ever increasing complexity; his only comment about the theory of evolution is that it's the best explanation we have right now but that doesn't mean it's actually what happened and refers to scientists who believe in it as the only viable alternative to special creation as "amateur philosophers") is only believable when you accidentally or intentionally ignore either the cyclical nature of life or that many simple ideas actually descended from complex ones (he mentions chicken and egg, acorn and tree, rocket designs, and civilizations)

* In one of his apologetic writing, C.S. Lewis points out that philosophical/cosmic evolutionism (the idea that everything always evolves to ever increasing complexity; his only comment about the theory of evolution is that it's the best explanation we have right now but that doesn't mean it's actually what happened) is only believable when you accidentally or intentionally ignore either the cyclical nature of life or that many simple ideas actually descended from complex ones (he mentions chicken and egg, acorn and tree, rocket designs, and civilizations)

If you were looking for [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant tropes actually about chickens]], see CluckingFunny and ChickenJoke.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Empyre}} #1'', [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Reed Richards]] is working out whether ComicBook/{{Hulkling}} forged the alliance between the Kree and Skrulls, or if the alliance came first and they then made him their leader. He compares it to the chicken-and-egg question, then gets SidetrackedByTheAnalogy, pointing out that since reptiles lay eggs and birds evolved from reptiles, naturally the egg came first. Sue bemusedly tells him to get back on-topic.

* WebVideo/MattMcMuscles brings this up in his video about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EvAoSWKDGQ Cancelled Spider-Man Video Games]]. A proposed sequel to ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan2005'' didn't get get the green light because the first game didn't sell well enough, and the game's lead texture artist attributes weak sales to Activision's lack of faith in the game:

* Creator/MattMcMuscles brings this up in his video about [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EvAoSWKDGQ Cancelled Spider-Man Video Games]]. A proposed sequel to ''VideoGame/UltimateSpiderMan2005'' didn't get get the green light because the first game didn't sell well enough, and the game's lead texture artist attributes weak sales to Activision's lack of faith in the game:

* {{Exploited}} in ''WebVideo/YuGiOhTheAbridgedSeries''. Joey tells Serenity to overload Super Giga Mecha Nesbitt's logic circuits and confuse him to death. She tries using this specific paradox on him as an attempted LogicBomb; [[TakeAThirdOption however, he responds with "The rocket powered fist,"]] which Serenity objects to, [[RocketPunch until he launches]] [[TalkToTheFist such a fist at her]].

[[quoteright:350:[[WebVideo/AsapScience https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chicken_or_chicken_egg.png]]]]

* The ''Pirkei Avot'', a classical Jewish text, argues that God created the first pair of tongs, on the grounds that one would need to already have a pair of tongs in order to forge a pair of tongs. [[TakeAThirdOption The normal non-miraculous explanation]] is that pre-Iron Age tongs were probably either ''cast'' from a metal with a lower melting point (e.g. bronze), or consisted of two pieces of water-soaked wood that were then used to hold the hot metal while it was forged.

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Series/SesameStreet'': A 1972 Sesame Street segment referenced the paradox with the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixgf5SlvOB4 "Chicken or the Egg"]], which played over footage of farmers collecting eggs from hens and putting them into cartons for shipment. The song notably never attempts to answer the question, but merely demonstrates to children where the eggs in their refrigerator come from.
[[/folder]]

--> '''Cioffe:''' Can I ask? Only because I've wondered this my entire life -- Which would normally come first? The music, or the lyric?
--> '''Aaron:''' Same answer as the chicken or the egg.
--> '''Cioffe:''' Ah. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint So it's the lyric]].

* ''Theatre/{{Curtains}}'': [[AscendedFanboy Lt. Cioffe]] has this exchange with Broadway composer Aaron Fox, who is currently separated from his wife/lyricist:

--> '''Aaron:''' No. A great melody doesn’t always need a lyric. Or a lyricist.

* ''Theatre/{{Curtains}}'': [[AscendedFanboy Lt. Cioffe]] has this exchange with Broadway composer Aaron Fox:

--> '''Fox:''' Same answer as the chicken or the egg.

--> '''Fox:''' ''[[FlatNo No]].''

--> '''Cioffe:''' Ah. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint So it's the lyrics]].
--> '''Fox:''' ''[[{{Deadpan}} No]].''

--> '''Cioffe:''' Ah. [[ComedicallyMissingThePoint So it's the lyrics]].

The TropeNamer is an [[OlderThanFeudalism ancient thought experiment]] first recorded by Creator/{{Aristotle}}: the chicken lays the egg, but it also hatches from it, resulting in a seemingly infinite cycle of chicken -> egg -> chicken -> egg. Aristotle and his successors considered this a key ontological mystery of the nature of the universe; in later years people tended to invoke DivineIntervention to explain it. [[ScienceMarchesOn The advent of modern biology ruined the postulate]]: the [[LiteralMetaphor literal answer]] to the original question is that the egg came first, on the grounds that eggs predate the UsefulNotes/{{evolution}} of chickens.