[feintruled]

I heard some speculation that it is a play on the "other side", i.e. death, in other words the chicken will get killed crossing the road but will still get to the "other side". Which would make it a proper punchline, though obtuse in the extreme!

[throwaway2016a]

That strikes me as when an author writes a story and then years later an interviewer asks her how she came up with such an amazing subtle metaphor. To which the author replies... they didn't, the reviewer is reading something into it that wasn't intended.