- Here are the top 12 Thanksgiving Day
episodes of sitcoms to get you through the holidays.
Folks, Turkey Day is right around the corner,
but instead of using the time off to argue about politics
or wake up at the absolute buttcrack of dawn
for a Black Friday sale,
why not just sit back, put your feet up,
and watch some classic Thanksgiving Day sitcom episodes?
And to help you out, we're counting down our favorites
to help keep you sane during your tryptophan hangover.
Now, bear in mind we put all of these episodes
through a rigorous screening process.
I mean, how else could we justify
watching this much TV at work?
And we applied a very scientific equation
to balance humor and heartwarming to come up with this list.
So comin' in hot at number 12,
The Office with "Wuph.com."
- [Michael and Ryan] Wuph!
- Dot com.
- While it's no secret we love
this workplace sitcom around our office,
this episode barely made the cut.
It's actually pretty light on the Thanksgiving Day theme.
Its B plot focuses on Dwight
throwing a Hay Festival for the holiday,
while the rest of the office tries to force Ryan
to sell his startup before they lose their investment.
Pretty deep into the run of this series,
season seven to be specific,
you can see the gas is starting
to run out a bit on the show.
But there's still enough laughs
and character building to give it the 12th spot.
Now, if you haven't seen Fresh Off the Boat,
the story of a young man, Eddie Huang, and his family
adapting to life in 1990s Florida,
well, you've been missing out.
But if you want to get into it,
check out our 11th pick
with the season two episode, "Huangsgiving."
- You're really committed to that name, huh?
- [Dan] When the Huangs are picked
to host family Thanksgiving for the first time,
things go awry when they try to do everything from scratch.
It's a great way to get into the show
and the holiday spirit.
- Happy Skanksgiving.
- This episode leans heavy into the Thanksgiving theme
and the idiosyncrasies that make the Huang family tick,
like Grandma Huang's recurring obsession
with Garfield the cat.
He's a cat who hates Mondays and loves lasagna!
What's not to like?
Hot at number 10, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
In the season nine finale, "The Gang Squashes Their Beefs,"
the group realizes they have too many enemies around town.
- We've made a lot of enemies over the years.
- We have made enemies.
- [Dan] They're gonna have to use Thanksgiving
to break bread with their foes.
However, in true Always Sunny fashion,
it all blows up in their faces
when the injured parties want compensation
for all of the many, many horrible things the gang has done.
We're talking missing eyeballs, exploded cars,
defrocked priests, you know, the usual.
While not one of the series' strongest episodes,
it is certainly about as sentimental
as the gang is gonna get,
even if it all was just a ploy
to have their guests sign peace treaties.
- Look at that, beef squashed, huh?
- Our number nine choice is not a sitcom,
but we'd be remiss to not have this on the list,
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.
That's right, Snoopy and Woodstock
may be a staple of Thanksgiving Day parades,
but their third animated holiday special
is a staple of our post-gorging activities.
You all know this one.
Charlie Brown and the gang
make their own Thanksgiving Day feast
with all the essentials, like jellybeans, toast, popcorn.
This episodes basically invented the concept
of Friendsgiving, where a chosen family, not a given family,
gets together to celebrate Thanksgiving in their own way.
Plus Peanuts is the mood of 2019,
with its equal shares of whimsy and very sobering realism.
- [Charlie Brown] Augh!
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine is one
of the funniest sitcoms on air today,
and that's why it's our number eight choice,
and wow, actually, we did not plan this right.
Eighth choice?
Are you ser--?
Go home.
No turkey.
- Gobble.
- [Dan] Their season five Thanksgiving episode,
"Two Turkeys," has the Nine-Nine dealing with
the hardest thing about the holidays,
keeping your family from going for each other's throats.
- Feliz Thanksgiving!
- [Dan] Oh, and also pie thieves.
You know, huge problem.
The stakes have never been higher.
"Two Turkeys" really expertly walks that line
of both the joys and pains
of inviting loved ones over to share a holiday,
and that's why it secures our number eight spot.
- If it could fly or swim, we're eating its eggs.
- Next up at number seven, it's New Girl season one,
episode six, the aptly titled "Thanksgiving."
This is the episode where the show
really found its rhythm of humor and heart,
where the audience learns to laugh
both with and at the antics happening onscreen.
In this episode Jess invites her crush,
played by Justin Long,
over for Thanksgiving dinner with her roommates.
- Oh my God, there's two of them.
- And despite their best efforts,
they can't help but fall in love
with his dorky genuineness.
New Girl has several memorable Thanksgiving episodes,
but we had to pick the first one,
because it's the only one where the gang finds a corpse
while they're trying to cook a turkey in a dryer.
And if that doesn't get you interested,
then I don't know what to tell you.
You've just seen too much.
- Oh, it was so fun.
I had a great time.
- Now let's check out number six, Happy Endings.
Oh my God, a show that's gone far before its time.
This little show almost made it, but if you haven't seen it,
please stop what you're doing right now and binge all of it.
Don't worry, I will wait in real time.
(jazz music)
Good stuff, right?
So we don't need to explain to you
why "More Like Stanksgiving" is a perfect encapsulation
of everything that we love abut the show.
You've got the gang coming together for Thanksgiving
to watch their appearance on the Real World: Sacramento,
Max coming out as Greg,
Alex unaware of what a sex swing is,
and the origins of Brad and Jane's relationship.
But it's truly Dave's misadventures
as a 1/16 Navajo on Thanksgiving
that put this in our number 1/6 spot.
- Oh! - Clams!
- At number five, the King of the Hill episode
"Happy Hanksgiving."
This particular outing finds the family
stuck in an airport while trying to travel
to Peggy's relatives in Montana for the holiday.
Now, throughout the episode, Hank is pushed to the brink,
as he has to pay full price for Luanne's ticket,
he's forced to spend the night in the terminal,
and then watch as his turkey is exploded by the bomb squad.
But ultimately "Happy Hanksgiving" proves you don't need
all the turkey and fixin's to enjoy Thanksgiving,
you just need your loved ones.
But also turkey helps.
- I got some turkey and all the trimmin's.
Actually, I don't have anything.
- And sometimes you wanna know
where everybody knows everybody else's names,
especially if that place has alcohol,
and that's why for our number four spot,
we're heading to Cheers.
In the episode "Thanksgiving Orphans,"
we see one of the rare instances
where the gang leaves the bar and heads to Carla's house
to celebrate Turkey Day with a potluck.
Of course, as one expects from a sitcom,
the dinner goes completely off the rails and ends up
in one of the biggest food fights we've ever seen.
This perfect blend of physical comedy
and tightly scripted zingers
is exactly why it belongs here at number four.
- We don't have to bite each other's heads off here.
- It may be the only thing we get to eat this day, Sammy.
- Now folks, we're down to the top three,
and comin' in hot in the bronze medal position
is How I Met Your Mother.
Despite it completely beefing it on the finale,
there is no denying that for the first few seasons,
it was firing on all cylinders.
And the season three episode,
"Slapsgiving," is a prime example.
- It's the one day we set aside each year
to gather together and give slaps.
- [Dan] As our heroes prepare for their first Thanksgiving
with Marshall and Lily together as a married couple,
shenanigans ensue as Ted bristles over Robin
bringing her new, older boyfriend to the festivities.
- I made Jello shots.
We's gon' get silly, bitches.
- [Dan] But the highlight is watching Marshall
terrorize Barney with the threat of a slap.
It's a running gag from episodes prior,
which is exactly why we put this
firmly in the third-place spot.
- That's three!
- And coming in at number two,
it's the show that inspired It's Always Sunny, Seinfeld.
While it's been over 20 years
and nearly every plot problem
could have been solved with a cell phone,
Seinfeld is still one of the funniest shows of all time.
- I don't wanna be a cowboy!
- [Dan] And with "The Mom and Pop Store,"
we see exactly why.
A mix of storylines converge,
from George buying Jon Voigt's car
and Jerry crashing a Thanksgiving party
to Kramer losing all of Jerry's shoes
and Elaine having her hearing destroyed.
And it ultimately ends with the gang
basically ruining the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Plus there's a bonus Bryan Cranston appearance,
so hey, everybody wins.
And now we're to our top
Thanksgiving sitcom pick of all time,
and for this one we chose to go with something
a little more personal and heartfelt
than some of the other options on this list.
I'm talking, of course,
about season two's Thanksgiving episode
of Netflix's Master of None.
This episode uses its premise to tell a story
that isn't always easy to hear,
and it's exactly why it won
an Emmy for comedy series writing.
This story follows two of the show's characters,
Dev and Denise, through years of Thanksgiving celebrations
with Denise's family as she slowly comes out of the closet
and her family slowly learns to accept her for who she is.
- I'm happy for you.
- [Dan] It's a story about some of the messy
family relationships we don't always see on TV,
but it's ultimately bound together
by love, acceptance, and learning,
and its authentic voice is due to
it partially being inspired by writer Lena Waithe's life.
Which is exactly why we had to make it our number one pick.
- Thanks, dude.
- So there are our choices for the best
Thanksgiving sitcom episodes of all time
to binge this holiday,
but tell us, what do you folks think?
Do you agree with our list?
What will you be marathoning this Thanksgiving?
And are you mad we didn't put any
episodes of Friends on this list?
'Cause I don't give a (bleep).
Let's discuss.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
(light flourish)