Give Thanks For The Laughter

Check out some of our favorite funny Thanksgiving videos.

After years of watching "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," it comes as no shock that Larry David isn't a fan of holiday gatherings – from Festivus on down.

Still, sentimental streaks emerge in the animated video David did last year for Funny or Die in which he describes predictably dysfunctional family Thanksgiving dinners during his childhood in Brooklyn. Battle lines were draw in the David household over those who preferred white meat to dark, though all agreed on their disgust over an uncle’s penchant for dining in a wife-beater undershirt.

As his parents would scream at one other, “We’d just keep eating,” David recalled.
 
The characteristically sardonic picture painted by David, light years from a Norman Rockwell painting, is likely all too familiar to many of us. Sure, Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate family and other blessings, but it’s also a time to bicker. Not to mention laugh, which we could all use after some trying recent weeks.
 
This year’s viewing of David’s video brought to mind some other comic favorites that represent different aspects of the holiday. Politics can spur spirited discussions around the dining room table, as Jimmy Kimmel reminded us last year in a mash-up of “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” and audio from one of the GOP debates (featuring Linus as Mitt Romney).
 
There’s also turkey talk, embodied in Sarah Silverman’s NSFW animated, 2010 retelling – an account challenged by her father – of how the family bird made it to the table one memorable year from her childhood. Every family has a Debbie Downer, which helped make Rachel Dratch’s old “Saturday Night Live” character relatable and reliable for Thanksgiving laughs.
 
“SNL” alum Jimmy Fallon, ever polite, regularly writes thank you notes, always putting him in a Thanksgiving state of mind. Check out some funny Thanksgiving-themed videos worthy of thank you notes:

Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.

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