Linguists geeking out about the name of one of my favorite bands was not something I knew I needed:
Somehow this bothered me in a way that other J-pop band names like “Porno Graffiti”, “Golden Bomber”, or even “Funky Monkey Babys” didn’t. These latter seem to me to follow some sort of intuitive English syntax, but “Bump of Chicken”??
Of course I grew up with 1960’s band names like “Strawberry Alarm Clock,” “Iron Butterfly”, “Led Zeppelin” and “Procol Harum”, but again, these seem in some way syntactically correct in a way that Bump of Chicken does not.
The comment section should not be missed as well.
Interestingly, during high school (with Indonesian as the native language), it was pretty common for us to use the English word chicken to describe a cowardly person, so the band’s explanation of their name to mean “counterattack from the weak man” would’ve been rather easily understood there.
Hafiz Rahman 