Thanksgiving is a holiday full of stressed-out home cooks who try to cram out as many dishes as possible and of course, have the best turkey. While the idea behind the holiday is to be grateful for what you have, most of the time it is lost in a cloud of cranberry sauce and forced conversations with estranged relatives.
Reddit/PsBattle
During all this chaotic time, things are bound to go wrong and while the small slips of running out of mashed potatoes are expected some people are just unlucky. We found 20 of the worst Thanksgiving fails from burnt to a crisp turkey to an Avant grade “vegetarian” version.
Have The Taste Of Thanksgiving All Year
This one really isn’t a specific Thanksgiving Day exclusive fail but an overall one. One company desperate to take advantage of the holiday spirit decided to create a new flavour that captured the “essence” of Thanksgiving.
And rather than picking something safe like cranberry as the hero flavour for their gumballs, this company chose to describe the whole meal. Yep. Starting with the appetizer of cranberry mixed with turkey and finish off with pumpkin pie… in one gumball.. together. Yep. Barf alright.
Following The Directions Literally
One jokester decided to ease up tensions around Thanksgiving by letting the Turkey “chill” before roasting it. The end result, a headless turkey with eyes for onions, a beer bottle in one “hand” and a remote in the other.
As funny as it looks, this actually works just as well as a “boring” chilling turkey that doesn’t have a t.v remote to keep it company! Well, it seems like a good day to spend the last hours before it gets roasted!
Run For Your Lives!
We get that cooking a turkey is a pretty complicated and tedious business but one family tried to fast track the whole process and while they did end up “cooking” the turkey quickly, they also ended up doing this.
Twitter/Greg Grunberg
Yep. This blazing black fire with scared children running away for their lives and a melted bbq is the result of one family trying to cook their thanksgiving dinner. Good thing no one was hurt!
Pick Your Half
Another cook wanted to try a different and quicker way of cooking turkey. This time by deep-frying it. While we have to agree that deep-fried anything tastes great, we aren’t sure about deep-fried turkey and after seeing this picture – you will also agree.
Instagram/laurenmasa
In an attempt to deep-fry this Turkey whole, it was put into a vat, yes VAT, of boiling hot oil but turns out it wasn’t big enough to fully submerge the meat and the end result is a half raw turkey top with the other half fried to a crisp.
5Wrong On So Many Levels
Despite it being 2021, some ignorant folks still think cultural appropriation is acceptable but we highly disagree. And this woman is the prime example of what NOT to do at Thanksgiving.
The biggest offence is that she is dressed as a Native American Woman and her colourful beaded jewellery is a far cry from the spiritual source. And if that wasn’t worst, the fact that she dressed her child as a turkey is just the cherry on top of this trainwreck of a picture.
6 The Perfect Thanksgiving Nightcap
A nightcap after a long day of socializing and eating too much sounds perfect and while many would choose a chilled glass of wine or a smooth whiskey. One vodka company decided to bring the festivities up a notch.
Their idea of capturing the holiday spirit for their consumer base? Pie flavoured vodka. Yep. And what’s worst is that someone not only bought this vodka but put EXTRA creamy whipped cream on top of it!
7 Just The Way The Family Likes It
Imagine inviting over all your friends and family and cooking seven different side dishes perfectly but burning your turkey. Well, that is exactly what happened to this cook. But they didn’t just overcook their turkey… they sent it to hell and back.
The best way to handle situations like these is just to laugh and let it go. Mistakes happen and despite this cook trying to dig and take a look and what the turkey looks like. We strongly advise against it. Enjoy those mashed potatoes and cranberries and call it a day.
8 Vegetarians Unite!
We can’t decide if this one is a fail or an ingenious idea just executed badly. We see that Thanksgiving is focused mainly on meat-eaters, it is all about Turkey after all and appreciate that one family decided to give the holiday dinner a vegan spin.
Though, this “turkey” made out of vegetables looks like it belongs in a kid’s birthday party rather than a family event. And to be honest, there are WAY better ways to hero vegetables when you aren’t trying to make them look like a bird!
Please, Don’t
The title kind of says it all. Just don’t do this to your Turkey. An uncooked turkey is unappetizing as it is but this one is nightmarish and yes, it is because of those creepy eyes.
Reddit/PsBattle
We barely have time to think on Thanksgiving, so we can’t imagine that this person decided to not just come up with this bizarre idea but took time out of their day to post this picture online. A+ on effort but F- on everything else.
At Least The Dog Had A Good Thanksgiving
For those cooking, pets and children seem to be the biggest obstacles in getting that perfect Thanksgiving spread ready and one family knows about that better than most. When their dog decided to ruin their neighbour’s thanksgiving.
This embarrassed looking pup is holding a note explaining how it managed to not just get inside the neighbour’s home but also ATE their turkey. The worst part, it was COOKED and the neighbours had already spent hours making it perfect… well, at least someone had a good dinner that day.
Someone’s Fired
No one really trusts the weather forecast ever because whenever sunshine is expected over the weekend, a thunderstorm ends up rolling. While many people have come to expect and ignore the weather forecast, this fail just seems too big.
For all our overseas readers, you might not know that Thanksgiving happens on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States of America. The date might change yearly but the day, Thursday remains the same. Well, one news channel marked Friday as Thanksgiving! A major blunder that never should have happened!
Really Setting The Mood
Leave it to commercialism to turn a holiday about giving thanks and turning into a multi-billion dollar industry that wants you to buy anything and everything turkey. From plush toys to pillows, to general knickknacks and now candles.
Apparently, Yankee Candle seems to think that people want the smell of cooked Turkey and Stuffing in their homes. As if, the real deal wasn’t overbearing enough. Now you can spend MORE money to buy a candle which probably smells VERY bad.
Candles Can Pack A Punch!
Another thanksgiving failure, another fire in a home. This cook was soo invested in their Thanksgiving cooking that they failed to notice that candles they had lit had caught half their table cloth on fire.
Thankfully, before it spread it was dealt with. We actually love that someone was busy taking PICTURES of this whole incident rather than helping put out the fire. If that isn’t true Holiday spirit!
Looks Edible!
We don’t know about you but for us, after Turkey, mashed potatoes are the main event. The fluffy and creamy add on is well the star of the sides and well done right, it can even outshine Turkey.
Of course, this mashed potato did grab all the attention but for the wrong reasons. While more is more, these mashed potatoes seem to be spreading and have taken over two counters! a) It’s unhygienic b) unappetising
Complete Overkill
Cakes are meant for birthdays and pies are perfect for thanksgiving. We don’t make the rules, we just follow them! But one person decided to ditch the tried and tested pumpkin pie and made a thanksgiving inspired cake!
And well, their end result just proves to us why people don’t make cakes on thanksgiving. This “turkey” inspired cake looks a lot like something you would find in your toilet after a big meal… sorry we went there but just look at that colour! Yikes! Hopefully, it tasted better than it looked.
16 Your Grandpa’s Cranberry Sauce
Just like there is no thanksgiving without turkey, there is no turkey without cranberry sauce. Either from a jar, can or homemade the tangy sauce is a must-have on any table to cut through the fatty spread.
And surprisingly, cranberry sauce out of a can tastes pretty good but one novice cook didn’t think to properly shake and stir the sauce before they took it out and had on their hands a solidified sauce in the appetizing shape of a regular tin can!
Disturbing Is A Understatement
This should just prove to people that there should only be one dessert on thanksgiving and that should be pie, specifically pumpkin pie. Because here we are, with another thanksgiving dessert fail.
This one again looks like a big brown mess and while we want to commend the creator for their idea, the execution seems to be a bit lacking. A cake shaped like a turkey with ice cream cones as its legs sounds fun in theory but as you can see from the picture, not that appetizing in real life.
Us Too Kid, Us Too
Kids tend to say or write in this case, the darndest things. From creepy premonitions to scary imaginary friends and brutal comments on one’s appearance. Children seem to be a better understanding of the world, at times, compared to adults.
And that is why when one kid was asked to write about his favourite memory from thanksgiving, he used the time to appeal for the Turkeys which get slaughtered by the millions for the big day. Smart kid!
19 No Cooking Needed!
This one isn’t really a fail, just more of an insight into the crazy era of the 1950s. TV Dinners were thought to be revolutionary and companies were trying their hardest to one-up each other to create the best selling meal.
Twitter/Mark Bowman
Swanson thought that selling Turkey Dinners as pre-packaged ready to eat meals around Thanksgiving was a sure way to help save housewives around the country from cooking for days- they even had a “stainless tableware offer” to make the whole thing seem classy!
Just Cut Around It
Ending the list isn’t just fail but a warning for all folks to check their Turkey THOROUGHLY before they buy it. One poor cook spent hours upon hours slow cooking their Turkey, only to realize that parts of it were rotten!
These questionable blemishes would have easily been spotted when Turkey was raw but it seems like either the cook was too busy to notice or too inexperienced to know that the dark spots weren’t meant to be there. Either way, we expect no one ate this Turkey or at least they shouldn’t have!