But you expect a man to wish for a woman, not just a companion of arbitrary gender. I don't know how long you've been in Brazil, but "chick" became common American slang for "young woman" in the late 1950s. The joke hinges on that double-entendre.
Like much of our postwar slang, it came from the vibrant Latin American music scene in New York City. Chica, literally "small," but with an overtone of cuteness or endearment, is Spanish slang for a little girl--adjectives are commonly used as nouns standing for people with the described quality, such as negro for "black person." The age range of a chica kept increasing until it came to mean any cute young woman. Americans picked it up and elided it to "chick."
There's no sexism in this slang; girls also refer to cute young men as chicos.
The term "be-bop" is also from the music scene in Nueva Yorque. Latin jazz conductors shouted arriba, literally "upwards," to encourage their band members to play hotter licks. Americans heard this as "rebop" and eventually changed it to the tougher-sounding "bebop."
An interesting coincidence occurred in the 1960s, after American rock'n'roll had colonized England and the British Invasion was just beginning to do the same over here. We adopted the British slang "bird" for woman, at the same time they adopted our word "chick." Apparently we both like our girls to have feathers.
And contrary to popular belief, salsa is not Caribbean music. It was developed in New York City!
So in England the joke should finish ""My second wish was for a tall bird with a big backside and long legs who agrees with everything I say.."
