There is nothing as successful at garnering the attention and holiday spirit of students and staff alike on Halloween day as serenading the hallways as a giant inflatable chicken, distributing rubber chickens to the masses, unless it’s a viral video of said inflatable chicken fighting an inflatable rooster.
Junior Logan O’Connor returned to the hallways of Malden High School for the second year in a row in his inflatable chicken getup to commemorate Halloween. “The Monday leading up to Halloween, I began bringing the squeaky chickens in: my children, and we were putting them in a locker because I wasn’t allowed to have them. We snuck them into the building. We had 150 chickens in a locker for about three days,” O’Connor shared.
With O’Connor’s goal of circulating his rubber chickens around the school, his main concern was getting in trouble and not being able to carry out his festivities. After his success, in addition to spreading joy throughout the hallways with the chicken dance song, O’Connor enlisted the help of junior Connor Schopp to take his holiday tradition to the next level.
After placing an order for an inflatable rooster costume, Schopp and O’Connor decided to go head-to-head in a fight that would take place in the courtyard during lunch. While the idea for the fight was originally rooted in comedy, there were underlying tensions within their friendship that raised the stakes of the fight.
It all started with a bag of chips. While the two friends were sharing, Schopp took the last chip out of a bag of chips that O’Connor originally paid for. After a heated debate on the ethics of friendship, the pair knew “we had to settle this,” Schopp resolutely stated.
Thus, the time came for the long-awaited chicken fight. “During the day itself, I heard that there was going to be a chicken fight. I saw a lot of students heading towards the courtyard, and they were all excited; everyone was talking. I really wanted to know why they were excited at first, but I also wanted to make sure that this was safe,” Brunelli House Principal Jean Edwald Charles commented.
Charles was able to recognize the joy the event was bringing to students while also prioritizing the safety of those involved. “Mr Charles just let us do it,” O’Connor stated. “We were shocked that he was fine with it, but I guess that’s Halloween spirit,” Schopp added.
A crowd quickly formed in a circle around the pair, actively cheering on each chicken as they delivered blow after blow, not letting the inflatable costumes get in the way of settling their argument once and for all.
Almost every person in the audience had their phone out, recording the ordeal occurring before them. However, it was junior Giovanni Capachietti’s video that got the attention of millions of people when he uploaded it to TikTok.
Currently at 2.3 million views, 381k likes, and 183.7k shares, Capachietti’s video of the chicken fight quickly dominated the feeds of Malden students and staff.
The video was sped up to two times speed and put over an audio of Kobe Bryant reciting the poem he wrote to announce his basketball retirement, coining the opening phrase “dear basketball.”
Capachietti was shocked at the initial popularity of the video and how quickly it amassed thousands upon thousands of views and likes. The stars of the video themselves were also surprised, “I love the TikTok personally. I love being famous even though nobody knows I’m famous,” Schopp exclaimed.
Charles even appeared in the video, briefly checking on the students mid-fight. The comments saw Charles’ lab coat and began calling him a “mad scientist referee,” questioning his motives for allowing the fight to continue.
“I was dressed as Bill Nye the Science Guy. I used to be a science teacher, so I put on my lab coat. The fight was going fine, but I was worried about whether they were being safe, so in the middle of the fight, I stopped them, and I asked if they were okay, and they told me that they were really best friends and that this was just for fun, so I let them continue,” Charles explained.
The comment section also housed the debate of who won this chicken fight. Commenters were quickly defending their opinions, while Schopp and O’Connor themselves replied to many of their supporters. With the photo comment feature, commenters shared memes and relevant pop culture images that related to the fight, garnering more attention to the video.
“It’s so funny. They’re putting the picture of Peter Griffin fighting the chicken in the comments,” Capachietti shared. Junior Anna Leticia was also a witness and factor in the fight, as she was asked to help record and play music for Schopp and O’Connor. “The music started playing, and I just started filming. Everything happened at once. It’s a chicken fight, we don’t see that often. It made history at MHS,” Leticia remarked.
While Schopp and O’Connor may never share a bag of chips again, their fighting did not occur for no good reason. “There are no trick-or-treaters out there for me personally. I feel like the Halloween spirit is dying, so it’s very important to get the Halloween spirit back up,” Schopp expressed.
After Schopp and O’Connor’s quarrel, no MHS student will be able to think about Halloween without being reminded of the viral fight. Make sure you look for the nearest available inflatable chicken suit if ever encountered with the phrase “squabble up.”
Correction: A previous version of this article contained information from Victoria Domiciano’s article Beyond the Classroom: The Hidden Hobbies and Interests of Malden High Teachers, it has been updated accordingly.
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