fuck the chicken

To accidentally slip up and say the wrong thing on camera or before a large public group; more specifically, to accidentally say a forbidden word (usually "fuck") on the air or in a place where it is forbidden.

From an on-air gaffe made by Ernie Anastos of WNYW-TV in New York on 16 September 2009, when he accidentally told a fellow anchorman to "keep fucking that chicken."

To continue doing a menial task that offers little reward.

Made famous by a live-news-television slip by a New York Fox anchor Ernie Anastos in September 2009.

when you are "fucking a chicken" you are having sex with it.

a random, inexplicably out of place rant.

Keep up the good work.

Coined by television anchor Ernie Anastos during a live broadcast of the Fox 5 New York local news. (See videos on YouTube.)

This expression became a term of encouragement after the following exchange in a live New York local Fox News broadcast at the end of the weather report.

Ernie: "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast, Nick."
Nick Gregory: "Well, I guess that's me!"
Ernie: "Keep fucking that chicken."

The first line is a parody of a commercial for Perdue chicken from the 1970's, in which Frank Perdue uttered the tag line, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken." "Keep fucking that chicken" was the punchline of a joke of the same time about how Perdue did it.

"Keep fucking that chicken" (KFTC) is a phrase coined by television anchor Ernie Anastos during a live broadcast of the Fox 5 New York local news. It is presumably a phrase of encouragement similar to keep on truckin, only with a more pronounced and colorful air of defiance.

The chicken being fucked may be an actual chicken, could be pejorative slang for a woman (i.e. chickenhead), or some other metaphor for an object of desire or enjoyable activity. In any case, KFTC seems to be a gesture of support to the recipient to continue doing whatever it is that they're doing, despite what others may say, so long as it makes them happy.