Chickens For KFC

About

Chickens For KFC is a catchphrase and meme that's used as a rhetorical analogy mocking queer pro-Palestinian protestors and other minority groups that show support for a cause that they could be targeted by. The phrase has been used since November 2016 to mock LGBTQ+ Trump supporters but gained traction in early 2020 after a picture showing students holding a sign reading "Queers for Palestine" went viral on X / Twitter. The term resurfaced in late July 2024 after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mocked pro-Palestine supporters in a speech addressed to the U.S. Congress, saying, "Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza. They might as well hold up signs saying 'Chickens for KFC.'"

Origin

On November 6th, 2016, X^[1] user @decolonialqueer posted one of the earliest mentions of the "chickens for KFC" phrase, showing a protestor holding a "Gays for Trump" sign, captioning it, "see also 'Africans for Colonialism,' 'Polar Bears for Fossil Fuels,' 'Chickens for KFC.'" The tweet (seen below, left) gained little traction, garnering roughly 40 likes and 46 retweets in eight years.

On January 28th, 2020, X^[2] user @MahyarTousi posted the earliest viral comparison of the "chickens for KFC" catchphrase with pro-Palestine protestors, using it as a caption alongside a picture of students from the University of Sydney Queer Action Collective. The post (seen below, right) amassed over 1,000 likes and 209 reposts in four years.

Spread

The catchphrase became widely spread online going into the 2020s, most notably used as a rhetorical analogy mocking queer pro-Palestinian protestors but also being applied to other, similar groups.

On July 24th, 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referenced the catchphrase in a speech addressed to the U.S. Congress, saying, "Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming gays for Gaza. They might as well hold up signs saying 'Chickens for KFC.'" The quote was posted on C-SPAN's YouTube^[3] channel (seen below), which amassed more than 143,000 views and 2,800 likes in a day.

Memetic content using the phrase also became popular on X, Reddit and TikTok in the 2020s. For example, on October 9th, 2023, an unknown Redditor^[4] posted a picture on the /r/Conservative subreddit of a woman holding a "Jews for Palestine" sign, captioning it, "Chickens for KFC 🤡🤡" (seen below, left), which received more than 640 upvotes and 321 comments in almost a year.

On November 14th, 2023, X^[5] user @avenaim posted a Photoshop image featuring chickens holding a "chickens for KFC" sign (seen below, right), which received roughly 220 likes and 10 reposts in almost a year.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References