If you’ve been on the Internet a lot lately, you’re
probably familiar with Jokgu the chicken. Jokgu is a musician
and as close to being a celebrity as a chicken can
get. Jokgu is the Taylor Swift of chickens, except that
Jokgu does not sing about ex-boyfriends.
Jokgu’s talent isn’t in singing—it’s in playing the piano
or keyboard. Jokgu recently appeared on the show
America’s Got Talent and amazed everyone by playing
the tune of “America the Beautiful” on a keyboard.
Members of the audience just couldn’t believe their
eyes. Was it really possible for a chicken to have more
musical talent than half the audience?
It turns out that it is indeed possible, as long as
chickens are given an opportunity to learn music at
an early age. Jokgu, a two-year-old chicken of the Buff
Brahma Bantam breed, lives in a Maryland coop that is
well-stocked with toy musical instruments, such as a
keyboard, drums, and xylophone. Some of the chickens
in the coop have even formed a band. Tour dates will
be announced soon. Perhaps they’ll even make a trip to
India, like Justin Bieber did recently.
Jokgu, in case you’re wondering, didn’t learn to
play “America the Beautiful” all by herself, although she
did come up with a tune called “America the Wormful.”
It was her owners who trained her to peck at the
keyboard in a deliberate pattern, playing the notes of
“America the Beautiful.”
“It took about two weeks to get her to this level
through clicker training,” Shannon Myers, co-owner of
the coop, told Huffington Post. “Just about 10 minutes to
get her to peck the keys initially.”
Clicker training is a method of training animals
through positive reinforcement. After performing a
task, the animals hear a click and then receive a reward,
such as a morsel of food.
“Because you can click faster than give a reward,
they immediately associate the click with the wanted
behavior which then leads to reward,” Myers said.
This is exactly how my wife trained me to do the
laundry. Every time I put clothes in the washing machine,
she made a clicking sound and handed me a reward:
the TV remote.
Jokgu is obviously a talented
chicken, but I can’t help feeling a little
sorry for her. Perhaps I misread her
body language on America’s Got Talent,
but I don’t think she really wants to be
a celebrity. I don’t think she wants to pose for selfies
with all her fans. I don’t think she wants to learn how
to write autographs. And most of all, I don’t think she
wants to go on a concert tour.
Chickens, in general, do not like to travel, whether
it’s in the cargo hold of a plane or on a tour bus. They’re
especially leery about performing at venues that serve
food. Imagine being on stage, trying your best to entertain
everyone with your musical talent, and some rude
person in the audience is eating fried chicken. It’s just
not right.
Whatever she does with her career, Jokgu should
serve as an inspiration to everyone. If a chicken can
play a musical instrument, what excuse do humans
have for not even trying?
Jokgu shows that not only are we failing to maximize
our own abilities, we’re also failing to harness the
abilities of the animals around us. Take my dog, Legacy,
for example. What does she do at night? She sleeps.
What does she do in the morning? She sleeps. What
does she do in the afternoon? She sleeps.
Imagine if I could teach her to play a musical instrument
or two. Instead of sleeping all day, she could
entertain me.
But even if a musical instrument is too much for
Legacy to learn, surely I could get her to master the
washing machine. It would be a great service to our
family—as long as my wife doesn’t reward Legacy with
the TV remote.