Slavoj Žižek (1949 – ) and the chicken joke from a recent lecture by Žižek:

Materialist interest in theology: materialists are the only true believers. A Lacanian joke is used to illustrate the nature of belief: a man is admitted to a psychiatric facility because he thinks he is a seed of grain: after much time, he no longer believes this and re-enters the outside world: but he immediately returns, trembling with fear because he thinks a large chicken is after him: the doctors say, “but you know that you are not a seed of grain”: “yes,” says the man, “but does the chicken know that?” —The Unquiet Grave