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Thanksgiving is a time for decorations, a time for food, a time for family — and, of course, a time for all of the stress, setbacks and squabbles that come with all of the above.
When your family fights over the turkey (probably because of something your Uncle David said, right? That guy’s the worst), it’s just downright uncomfortable. But when it happens on a TV show or in a movie, dysfunction can become incredible art.
From the hilarious to the heartwrenching, here are our favorite (fictional!) awkward family dinners:
The “Slapsgiving” series, How I Met Your Mother
— By Danielle Ohl
Ah, Slapsgiving. Never in the history of sitcom television has there been an episodic theme as great as the “slap bet” between How I Met Your Mother’s Barney Stinson and Marshall Eriksen.
If you’re unfamiliar with the glorious slap bet, it is a wager between the two characters that culminates in Barney choosing between two fates: 10 slaps in succession or five slaps spread over the course of his lifetime. Barney chooses the five slaps, then lives in constant fear of Marshall’s righteous hand.
In total, Marshall actually slaps Barney eight times — the additional punishments are a result of another lost bet — and three occur on, yes, my friends, Thanksgiving.
Now, Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for joyous adulation in the name of togetherness and gluttony, but why not shake it up a bit? I laud the efforts of the HIMYM writers. Just think of how much better your awkward family dinner with Great Aunt Trish and her Pomeranians would be with the added suspense of a potential face-five. Think of your family gathered round the table, turkey gleaming a golden brown and mashed potatoes piled to heaven, holding hands and sharing smiles as an argument about who gets to slap cynical cousin Joseph brings hearts closer together.
The “Slapsgiving” episodes are a welcome change to the tired trope of uncomfortably kitschy family dinners. It’s a distraction from the also worn-out kitchen woes that typically accompany Thanksgiving episodes. In other shows, the turkey burns, the apple pie crumbles and hackneyed hijinks ensue but eventually end (thankfully). In HIMYM, the thrill ride never stops; every Slapsgiving episode is a hilarious cliffhanger in which the urge to throw some friendly blows only intensifies.
This Thanksgiving, think about what you really want: a hokey holiday hangout or a high-stakes, hand-flying hoedown?
It worked for Ted, Lily, Robin, Marshall and Barney. It can work for you too.
“Dinner Party,” The Office
— By Maeve Dunigan
Arguably, one of the most uncomfortably hilarious dinners ever on television is the dinner party that takes place in Michael Scott’s home in season four of The Office. Everything that could possibly go wrong seems to go wrong, and each joke is so perfectly timed that it ends up being a work of comedy genius.
“Make yourself to home, this is our casa,” Michael says as he ushers Pam and Jim into the condo he’s currently sharing with his eccentric girlfriend Jan.
Jim and Pam are given a tour of the tiny condo. Eventually, the group gets to Jan’s candle-making room, and Melora Hardin, who plays Jan, delivers one of her funniest lines, locking her crazy eyes on the couple and saying, “When I get frustrated or irritated or angry, I come up here and I just smell all my candles.”
Michael, of course, has a variety of incredible one-liners throughout the episode: His wine “has sort of an oaky afterbirth,” and when he and Jan get into an argument about having kids, he yells, “I bought this condo to fill with children!”
Eventually, Angela and Andy arrive. Angela is as frigid as ever and is constantly juxtaposed with Andy in all his pastel turtleneck-wearing goofiness. Two unexpected guests show up later. Of course, they are none other than Dwight Schrute and his date, a woman who claims she used to be Dwight’s babysitter and whom we later learn is actually homeless.
The dinner proceeds to go horribly, horribly wrong. Jan begins to nit-pick everything Michael is doing, which leads to Michael mounting his neon St. Pauli Girl Beer sign on the wall above the table because he thinks it “ties the whole room together,”which in turn leads to Jan throwing one of Michael’s “Dundie” awards at the TV. Pam, Jim, Angela, Andy, Dwight and the mysterious babysitter are left to watch the madness unfold.
“I’m gonna get going,” says Dwight’s date after the room falls to silence. Jim and Pam, who at this point, are glad to have any excuse to get out of the dinner party gone awry, join her hastily. However, as they exit, they’re met by police who have come to the house after receiving noise complaints.
“There was screaming but, um, my girlfriend threw a Dundie at my TV,” Michael tells the confused-looking officers.
This episode showcases the some of the best aspects of the dry comedy that was The Office’s stock-in-trade. Michael and Jan’s escalating insanity is perfectly contrasted with Pam and Jim, who really just want to eat and go home. Pam just about sums up her feelings when she whispers into the camera, “I don’t care what they say about me, I just want to eat, which I realize is a lot to ask for … at a dinner party.” Apparently, at Michael’s condo, it is a lot to ask for.
The funeral dinner, August: Osage County
— By Michael Errigo
Spanning 15 minutes in the heart of the movie, the funeral dinner scene from August: Osage County is a minefield of emotion. I have never seen the story in play form, only the 2013 film, but I would assume the scene is as good on stage as it is on screen, if not better. I say this because what makes the scene so great, the thing that causes any viewer to cringe the whole way through, is the human aspect of the dialogue. It helps that the movie is loaded with supremely talented actors, but the dinner scene is an exemplary display of language-based acting nonetheless.
The table and the discussion that surrounds it are helmed by Meryl Streep as volatile matriarch Violet Weston. Any attempt at regular family chatter, the kind that will surely be present at most of our dinner tables on Thanksgiving night, is broken up by her ruthless aggression. Brought about by the death of her husband or the blue pills she popped before sitting to eat, or a little of both, her vitriol is at once entertaining and frightening in its rawness.
Many critics said Streep’s role in this film was simply Oscar bait and dismissed the whole movie as such. But the dinner scene alone qualifies it as a fine film achievement. Streep’s stellar performance is matched by everyone at the table, especially Julia Roberts and Chris Cooper as her daughter and brother-in-law, respectively. It’s the ultimate dysfunctional family dinner scene, except it’s rarely funny.
There are plenty of those funny and awkward family dinners in fiction, but none as dramatic and well-acted as this. This Thanksgiving, be thankful for the fact that you don’t have Violet Weston sitting at the head of your dinner table.
“The One Where Ross Got High,” Friends
— By Dustin Levy
Friends and Thanksgiving go together like turkey and stuffing.
Sorry for that analogy, but Friends really did have a special formula for mining comedy from the November holiday and created many memorable episodes in the process. Whether it featured a celebrity guest star such as Brad Pitt or Christina Applegate, or a truckload of physical comedy (remember the episode where the gang played a game of football?), the Friends Thanksgiving episodes were never a letdown.
But one episode stands above them all — “The One Where Ross Got High.” It might not be the most memorable or creative Thanksgiving episode, but it is undoubtedly the funniest. The episode aired during Friends’ sixth season, and by that time, the showrunners knew exactly how to get the best material from the cast: stick them in a room and leave them there for the duration of the episode. Friends bottle episodes were among the best the series ever produced, and “The One Where Ross Got High” is definitely on that list.
Ross and Monica’s parents Jack and Judy Geller are coming to Monica’s for Thanksgiving dinner. One problem: the Geller parents are unaware of Monica’s relationship with Chandler, and, as Monica reveals to her boyfriend, they aren’t his biggest fans. This causes Chandler to overcompensate in trying to impress Jack and Judy with little success. Once it gets to the point of Judy speculating Chandler’s stoned again, Ross reveals to Chandler that his parents hate him because Chandler was blamed for Ross’ pot smoking in college. Uh oh.
Meanwhile, Phoebe is having sex dreams about Mr. Geller (and later, French undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau), and Joey and Ross are gearing up for a spicy Thanksgiving with Joey’s roommate and her dancer friends, so they are looking to get through this dinner pronto. However, this includes getting through Rachel’s dessert, a “traditional” English trifle.
The sitcom trope of pretending a badly cooked meal is good might be overdone, but Friends executed this storyline brilliantly. It starts with Rachel taking on the task of Thanksgiving dessert. (Rachel: “Look, I’m melting butter.” Monica: “You now have the cooking skills of a hot day.”) And then Rachel slowly reveals the layers of her trifle — ladyfingers, jam, “beef, sauteed with peas and onions.” Rachel is none the wiser because, you know, there’s mincemeat pie and the English just put weird things in their food.
This complicates the night for Joey and Ross, who prepare everyone else for Rachel’s disastrous cooking. The awkward meal has everyone excusing themselves with Rachel’s dessert, except for Ross, who scarfs it down before Rachel can know what’s up, and Joey, who exclaims he likes the beef trifle. (“What’s not to like? Custard? Good. Jam? Good. Meat? Goooood.”
And then everything comes to a head when Monica grows frustrated with Ross stalling to tell his parents the truth. This leads to the siblings sniping and revealing major secrets in front of their parents, including Ross’ third divorce and Monica and Chandler’s relationship status. (My personal favorite revelation: “Hurricane Gloria didn’t break the porch swing, Monica did!”) This results in even more revelations — Phoebe reveals her love for Jacques Cousteau, Rachel finds out beef was not supposed to be an ingredient in her dessert and Joey … well, Joey just wants to leave.
In quite possibly her finest moment on the series, it’s time for Judy Geller to set everyone straight. Jacques Cousteau is dead. Rachel’s trifle did not taste very good. Joey can go whenever. As for their opinion of Chandler, if he can put up with Monica and Ross’ “drug problem,” the Gellers think he’s wonderful. Conclusion reached. Another legendary Friends Thanksgiving in the books.
“I’m voting for Dukakis,” Donnie Darko
— By Zoe DiGiorgio
The scene starts out innocently enough. While the Darko family is enjoying their pizza in the early moments of the 2001 indie sci-fi drama Donnie Darko, daughter Elizabeth (Maggie Gyllenhaal) pipes up:
“I’m voting for Dukakis.”
The Darko family dinner scene is one of the most iconic moments in the film. For a movie that has time travel, schizophrenia, a man in a giant skeletal rabbit costume and a dance troupe known as “Sparkle Motion,” it’s an impressive feat. But from that one simple declaration, the scene picks up into one of the most realistic depictions of a typical family dinner conversation I have ever seen.
There are several elements that really make this moment work. When the Darko family — mom Rose (Mary McDonnell) dad Eddie (Holmes Osborne), son Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) and daughters Elizabeth and Sam (Daveigh Chase) — begin debating the merits of electing Michael Dukakis as president, things get a little out of hand, especially when they argue when the right time is for Elizabeth to “squeeze one out,” much to the confusion of young Sam.
When mentally ill Donnie chimes in, a battle of wits begins between the elder Darko children featuring creative uses of the f-word that have gone down in cinematic history. Despite the hostility in the exchange, the uncanny humor of this moment is very relatable to anyone who has ever had an awkward dinner with siblings.
But behind these funny, off-kilter moments, the scene establishes something far more important to the film as a whole: the film shows how the Darkos react to Donnie’s illness. Elizabeth is quick to lash out at Donnie when he tells Sam that she can’t “squeeze one out” “until like, eighth grade,”but Donnie fires back with just as much anger.
“Maybe you should be the one in therapy. Then Mom and Dad can pay someone 200 dollars an hour to listen to all of your thoughts so we won’t have to,” he shouts across the table.
While we don’t see Donnie interacting with his whole family in too many scenes in the movie, this moment creates interesting tension and allows the audience to observe how Donnie’s schizophrenia affects his whole family. But with the humorous dialogue about squeezing out kids mixed in, there’s a sense of levity to the whole thing that makes it feel like just another dinner conversation.
Except I bet you’ve never called anyone a “f***ass.”
