The Chicken In The Bathroom

It was a tweet from Stephen Fry, currently somewhere in Switzerland, that eventually led me to this blog, where I discovered that there is a bear hidden in the mountain that forms the logo on Toblerone bars.


Can you see it now?

Apparently, "Toblerone candy originated in Bern, Switzerland, a city whose name is rumored to mean 'City of Bears'". And I bet you'll never be able to not see it now!

It reminded me of my family bathroom as a child. The ceramic tiles on the wall were white with veins of a second colour, like a poor-man's marble, I guess. That's all they were until my elder brother pointed to the chicken - the pattern of the veins left a void in the centre of the tile which, if the right way up, bore a resemblance to a chicken. And once I'd had it pointed out to me, the chicken was always there.

It became impossible, on seeing these tiles in other bathrooms, not to point out the chicken, especially if the poor thing was standing on its head.

I was hoping to put up a picture of one of these tiles so you could see what I mean. Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the design, now long-since obsolete, so I couldn't track one down. I even asked my Dad what it was called. His answer? "Oh, I don't know. Everyone up here just calls them 'chicken tiles'". It's clearly a commonly held view.

It made me wonder how many other things are hidden away if we only knew to look for them. Maybe you have some examples of your own?

Let me leave you with one more example I've come across. In the middle of the cover-art for the video of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" is what looks suspiciously like a penis. Judge for yourself:

Word was that the designer had been disgruntled with Disney and had taken a subtle form of revenge. Disney responded rapidly to the rumours, saying that it was pure coincidence (after all, how could anyone working for the Magic Kingdom ever be disgruntled?) and promptly air-brushed out the offending, uh, article. The artist himself said he'd not even noticed until it was pointed out. But then he would, wouldn't he?

The usually reliable Snopes dismisses this story as false. Still, it's nice to believe ... and, again, I bet you'll never be able to look at artwork for "The Little Mermaid" again without checking whether the palace has a phallus!

Besides, Disgruntled or not, this is not an isolated example emerging from the Disney sweat workshops; there are persistent stories of hidden jokes in many Disney films. Even within that same film there is the infamous erection scene. Enjoy!