Entertainment
Thanksgiving isn't exactly the funniest of holidays — it's a time of delicious meals and sometimes-tense family dinners — but Saturday Night Live has found a way to mine it for humor anyway. Over the years, they've featured sketches that tackle the holiday's uncomfortable moments or heighten the mundanity to surreal levels. These 7 SNL Thanksgiving skits are some of their best, and can serve as the perfect amuse bouche to this year's brand new turkey day spoofs (whatever they turn out to be).
Some of SNL's Thanksgiving skits lean into the awkwardness of being back in your family home as an adult, where you can find yourself reverting to old behaviors for better or worse. Others are much more eccentric, featuring impressions that range from Guy Fieri to Vincent Price. The more unconventional each skit gets, the more unexpected it feels, taking the relatively mild food-centric holiday and making it as outlandish as humanly possible. And that's no easy feat.
These aren't all of SNL's Thanksgiving sketches (the show has been on the air since 1975, so there have been a lot), but just a few to keep you entertained during the holiday weekend. In no particular order, enjoy the following skits.
"Back Home Ballers"
This music video premiered during Cameron Diaz's hosting gig in 2014. Featuring many of the women of SNL — including Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, Sasheer Zamata, Vanessa Bayer, Aidy Bryant, and Leslie Jones — it's a rap ode to rolling up at your parents' place for Thanksgiving and being treated like a queen. All the homemade nachos, free WiFi, and $10 pajamas a girl could want!
"Nikey Turkey"
This throwback sketch couldn't be more '90s. Playing off the debut of sneakers that you could pump up to your desired puffiness, Chris Rock introduces audiences to the Nikey turkey. Bird too small for the whole family to partake? Just pump it up!
"Thanksgiving Foods"
This truly unsettling sketch has Kristen Wiig taking viewers on a tour of odd Thanksgiving foods. Whether she's showing off mashed Mr. Potato Head or a shoebox full of Twizzlers (they were supposed to be green beans), Wiig's deadpan delivery makes this intensely strange skit strangely funny.
"Vincent Price's Thanksgiving Special"
This holiday seems to bring out the bizarre on SNL. Bill Hader stars as Vincent Price in this nightmare-before-Thanksgiving skit, which sees guest appearances from a variety of old Hollywood stars.
"A Thanksgiving Miracle"
This skit begins by capturing the downside of Thanksgiving: having to remain civil during an uncomfortable dinner with family members whose beliefs differ wildly from your own. Luckily everyone can be united by their love of Adele and her hit song "Hello."
"Target Commercial"
If even Adele can't save your Thanksgiving, SNL gives you another option with this fake Target commercial. The parody suggests driving to Target to escape an uncomfortable family meal, where you can sit in the parking lot despondently or go inside to search out the secret flask hidden in the Play-Doh.
"Guy Fieri On Thanksgiving"
Who better to give you recipe tips on the foodiest of holidays than Guy Fieri? Bobby Moynihan takes on the impression during a 2010 Weekend Update segment, where he dishes on pancake stuffing and turduckenrapigcowcowhorsishgamehen (a turkey stuffed in a duck inside a chicken inside a rabbit in a pig in a baby cow in a big cow in a horse and finally stuffed into a Cornish game hen) deep-fried in Jägermeister.
If you need to escape from the table to enjoy a three-minute YouTube video or you're looking for a neutral conversation-starter, perhaps one of these SNL Thanksgiving skits can help you out this holiday season.
