What part of the chicken is “popcorn”?

Sometimes advertisers provide a little too much food for thought.

A current television commercial opens by asking, “What part of the chicken is ‘nugget’?” It’s a commercial for popcorn chicken. While I’ve always sort of suspected Colonel Sanders and Orville Redenbacher were separated at birth, I’m fairly sure you’ll find neither “nugget” nor “popcorn” on the anatomy of an organically raised chicken.

While we’re at it, I’ve been perennially intrigued by Brett Favre’s Wrangler® Jeans commercial, which offers footage we’re led to believe is of him playing pick-up football. I can’t help myself. Each time I see the commercial – and I feel like it’s aired from the time Favre was still with Green Bay through today, when he’s officially, for real decided to spend more time with his grandkid – I contemplate how the process for choosing teams must have gone.

Somehow I envision a cross-section of neighbors and relatives standing around, waiting for teams to be picked. (Curiously, they’re all wearing jeans – a harbinger of other conditions you’re not likely to encounter in your own backyard ballgame.) A couple teenagers from around the block emerge as captains and rock-paper-scissors for the first pick, with the unfortunate loser of that transaction getting relegated to making the next two way-down-the-depth-chart selections. The ensuing interchange proceeds something like this:

R-P-S Winning Captain: Paper covers rock. Sweet! I’ll take Brett Favre.
R-P-S Losing Captain: Uh, okay. Er...let’s see. I’ll choose Uncle Floyd and...Billy, you played for Oak Grove Middle School, right?

Kudos to Uncle Floyd and Billy for taking on Team Favre. At least they weren’t chicken.