Thanksgiving Episodes

Do we all have reasons to be thankful? Yes, we do. The sun is shining. Jesus is on the throne. And the McRib returns on December 2nd. Just kidding. That doesn’t excite me, but Thanksgiving episodes of my favorite shows do. My best friend and I started the tradition many years ago of watching every Thanksgiving episode of Friends the day before Thanksgiving because those are peak David Crane and Marta Kauffman.

Life has changed a bit, and we have been gifted other shows with Thanksgiving greatness, so I hereby present my Top 5 favorite Thanksgiving episodes of shows because these are guaranteed to bring you joy and laughs. Do you need that?

Gilmore Girls-A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving

Lorelai and Rory have committed themselves to four different Thanksgiving dinners, and the contrast between each dinner is perfection. At Mrs. Kim’s they eat tofurkey and listen to hymns. Sookie is drunk because Jackson wants to deep fry her turkey. Luke says a blessing that he’s thankful that he’s not a native American who got his land stolen in exchange for a smallpox infested blanket. And Richard ceremonially carves a turkey and Lorelai quotes “Lady Marmalade” to a French guest. All the while Kirk has adopted a cat that he’s named “Cat Kirk”-tell me that isn’t funny.

Friends-The One Where Ross Got High

Any time you bring Jack and Judy Geller on screen, I’m in. The trifle. The rift between Monica and Ross. Jack drinking evaporated milk from the can. Phoebe declaring her love for Jacques Cousteau. I just need everyone in American to watch this episode and calm down.

New Girl-Thanksgiving III

Nick thinks he’s gotten too soft while dating Jess, so he proposes that they go camping for Thanksgiving and hunt and forage for their dinner. Winston declares the only “hunts” he cares about are Bonnie and Helen. It’s absurd and hilarious and has some of my most frequently quoted lines of the series. The sequence about George Washington hunting kills me.

New Girl-Thanksgiving

Putting a turkey in the dryer to defrost it. I’m not saying that I’ve done it, but I feel like it’s not completely out of the realm of possibilities. I really feel this episode deep in my bones. I always have grandiose plans about how I’m going to handle something or make it special, but I have zero follow through. Who’s that girl? It’s Kat.

Friends-The One with all the Football

This entire episode is perfect. I love that’s it’s different from so many Thanksgiving episodes because it doesn’t take place around the table. Have I ever called one of my sisters a “hairy-back Mary”? No, but I’m not saying I wouldn’t either. In our family we don’t have the “Geller Cup”, but we have had an old sheep trophy that we called the “Holy Sheep I Ate Too Much” for our own Thanksgiving games. More on that in a later post.

Honorable Mentions:
New Girl-Thanksgiving IV “Your head is huge. You look like the Jewish Pharell.”