Top Ten Tuesday #291

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week since I last did one of these, mine has been relatively quiet since Stirling is into a local lockdown now, but I did have a nice weekend, I did a back to back Mamma Mia 1 & 2 watch with pizza and ice-cream on Friday night and Strictly on Saturday, so the joy was strong in my house!

Anyway, as it’s Tuesday, I’m back with another Top Ten Tuesday for you all, courtesy of Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl (sorry it’s slightly later than usual, I’ve been doing job applications this afternoon). This week is the annual Thanksgiving freebie I’ll be honest, I struggled coming up with a topic for this year’s freebie, as I’ve done a lot of the bookish ones already and it’s 2020, things to be thankful for are few and far between. So instead, I’m talking TV this week, I watch a lot of US TV and Thanksgiving episodes seem to be a staple (it’s how I learned what Thanksgiving was to be honest since we don’t have it in the UK!) so I’m going to share my Top Ten Favourite Thanksgiving TV Episodes this week. Caution before I go into this, there will be spoilers!: 

1. The One With The Football-Friends

Friends has an awful lot of Thanksgiving episodes to choose from, so this is not the only Friends appearance on this list, but it’s my favourite one. American football may be completely lost on me, but a girls vs boys football game where Monica and Ross get insanely overcompetitive over an ugly troll doll trophy? It’s classic Friends.

2. The One With All The Thanksgivings-Friends

My other Friends instalment on this list, this Season 5 Thanksgiving episode has a lot of memorable moments. Like many of Friends gags, the Fat Monica jokes have aged terribly, but seeing the flashbacks to everyone’s worst Thanksgivings is incredibly hilarious and Chandler accidentally telling Monica he loves her whilst she’s dancing with a turkey on her head to apologise for cutting his pinky toe off (that was her worst Thanksgiving ever) is one of my favourite ever TV I-love-you moments.

3. Slapsgiving-How I Met Your Mother

Ah remember the time before How I Met Your Mother was soured forever by THAT finale? Me too. Anyway, back when How I Met Your Mother was actually an okay show, we had Slapsgiving, the start of one of the show’s most iconic running gags, the Slap Bet. There are two “Slapsgiving” themed episodes (we don’t count the one in Season 9 with the terrible yellow face), and this is the better of the two, with the endless slap puns, cringey inside jokes and of course the very satisfying, third slap of the Slap Bet.

4. A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving-Gilmore Girls

I actually watched this just last week as I’m currently doing my annual rewatch of Gilmore Girls. This Season 3 Thanksgiving episode (it’s actually one of only two, Gilmore Girls didn’t really lean into the holiday episodes in the same way that a lot of other shows do) has so many memorable moments: Lorelai and Rory trying to cram four Thanksgiving dinners into one day, Lane and Dave’s first kiss and Sookie dealing with Jackson deep frying her turkey by getting incredibly drunk.

5. Blair Waldorf Must Pie!-Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl did several Thanksgiving episodes over its run (it’s Blair’s favourite holiday) but this one from the first season will always be my favourite as we get flashbacks to Thanksgivings from years past and get a lot more insight into the characters and their relationships with each other, especially Blair.

6. Four Thanksgivings and A Funeral-Ugly Betty

The only Thanksgiving episode in Ugly Betty’s four season run, but it’s definitely a fun one with Marc and Amanda dressing up in outfits from the closet whilst drinking and singing along to Dreamgirls being a highlight! Wilhelmina’s reaction to having to stuff a turkey is definitely a close second.

7. Mr Santiago-Brooklyn Nine Nine

This season 4 episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine sees Jake meeting Amy’s father and as expected things don’t turn out quite as planned! Meet the parents episodes of sitcoms are always fun to watch and the fact that Victor is also a retired cop makes for a fun dynamic between him and Jake.

8. Parents-New Girl

I can’t say that New Girl ever comes to mind as a show with the most memorable Thanksgiving episodes, but this Season 2 one was a lot of fun, with Jess trying to “Parent Trap” her divorced parents.

9. Two Turkeys-Brooklyn Nine Nine

This Thanksgiving episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine sees Jake and Amy’s parents meeting for the first time & of course because it’s a sitcom and their parents have nothing in common, everything goes horribly wrong, which of course means lots of hilarity for us.

10. Chapter Twenty Eight-Jane The Virgin

This season two episode of Jane The Virgin is kind of Thanksgiving-lite, it’s not a major focus of the episode, rather merely where the episode ends, but I included it anyway as it’s a super fun one. It’s all about milestones and follows the characters through a four month period in one episode so it’s really cool to see how everything changes for the characters. Petra spending Thanksgiving with Jane’s family and seeing the start of a tentative friendship between her and Jane is definitely a highlight.

So there we go, those are just some of my favourite Thanksgiving TV Episodes. What are some of your favourites? Let me know in the comments! 

I’ll be back with another Top Ten Tuesday next week, the topic is meant to be Books I Wish I Could Read Again, but I already did that topic about two years ago and I’d rather do something new, so instead I’m going to talk about my Top Ten Favourite Christmas Movies, as I want to start trying to get into the festive spirit (I realise we’ve had a few non-book themed ones in a row, but I actually quite like getting to share some of the other things I enjoy with you guys sometimes as well!).