Today is Thanksgiving! No matter what you’re doing to celebrate the festive, feast-centric & gratitude filled holiday (whether that’s working on food prep in the kitchen or taking a restful food coma in between meals), stand-up comedy is without a doubt the best soundtrack & accompaniment to have playing for widely celebrated holiday.
For some funny jokes to dig in to while you're carving your turkey or just sitting back in your recliner at the end of the day, check out this 800 Pound Gorilla stand-up compilation above featuring 11 great comedy specials & 11 funny jokes from each special we’re thankful for this year and know you’ll enjoy!
If you loved the compilation above, check out more of these jokes broken down below & how to watch these specials in full!
Alex Edelman on his Thanksgiving traditions.
In comedian Alex Edelman's debut comedy album Until Now, he dishes his witty style of humor on all things Thanksgiving, attending NYU, being a millennial, his parents & more. At the time of its release in 2020, he called this album some of his "favorite jokes from [his] solo shows and TV appearances. Old ones, new ones, red ones, blue ones. I’m so excited as it will finally force people on social media to stop asking me when I’m going to put out an album.”
Mark Forward on chipmunks.
In Canadian comic & Letterkenny actor Mark Forward's debut comedy special, Mark Forward Presents...Mark Forward, he opens up on his expertise on Chipmunks, spousal abuse, 911 bringing us all together, and the world of fancy hats. And his joke about Chipmunks feels & hits different in all the best ways on Thanksgiving this year (we can't help but think & feel reminiscent about this particularly classic Chipmunk-filled holiday song).
Ben Palmer on Black Friday.
Master of troll comedy Ben Palmer teaches us one thing in his breakout stand-up special featuring his cheeky powerpoint presentation (and it's exactly as the special's titled): You Can Be Anything. He has a killer bit about Black Friday where he pretends to be the T.J. Maxx Facebook page responding to a fan wishing they were open on Thanksgiving and it just goes absolutely off the rails.
Mark Normand on flying.
Holiday travel can be incredibly frustrating especially on Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year. We Might Be Drunk & Tuesdays With Stories podcaster & comic Mark Normand knows this feeling very well as told in his break out comedy special Out To Lunch (fun fact: this zinger filled stand-up special just celebrated its fourth anniversary earlier this year). And in it, he has a bit where he explains his reasoning for picking the person he's sitting next to over the picking the seat on the airplane.
Josh Glanc performs his funny take on a Blues Brothers classic.
Australian stand-up comedian Josh Glanc took a different approach when releasing his debut stand-up special Vrooom Vrooom this past summer. Unlike exclusively standing behind a microphone doing stand-up, his hoot of an hour is filled with the silliest of bits, sketches & songs you won't find in most debut comedy specials. One stand out bit his his hysterical take on this classic Blues Brothers song Soul Man, where instead he sings about being a "small man" and some change.
Nick Swardson on being a weird child growing up.
One of the many things getting together on Thanksgiving with your family does is it brings out some memories from your childhood you probably haven't thought about in ages and may not know how to come up against it when your crazy cousin or Aunt brings those up. If there's a funny & slapstick performer that can relate to this exact feeling, it's Reno 911 & Benchwarmers star & comedian Nick Swardson. In his latest comedy special, Make Joke From Face, Nick unpacks his perspective on people in his life asking him of he was a weird child growing up. To which he responds, "yeah, when I was eight, I was a divorce attorney. Super weird. I was very serious."
Blair Socci on creating an OnlyFans account during the pandemic.
LA comic Blair Socci released her debut stand-up special, Live From The Big Dog, this summer where she opens up on a wide range of stories from giving her take on Kyrie Irving's flat Earth to creating an OnlyFans account for her feet during the pandemic (a wild story). Blair's humor will leave you shoveling shoestring fries into your mouth and wishing for men with large thighs (looking at you baseball fans & Triscuit lovers).
Ted Alexandro on being an old dad & having a young wife.
Comedian Ted Alexandro knows a thing or two about unique family dynamics: the one he specializes in is having an 18 year age gap between him & his wife (he's 50 & she's 32 at the time of the taping). This is detailed explicitly in his fifth special Cut/Up, where he also jokes about everything including marriage, politics, and even the lyrics of La Bamba.
Anjelah Johnson-Reyes on suddenly "adopting a single mom."
Families coming together offer a wide range of funny living scenarios, one of which comedian & actress Anjelah Johnson-Reyes knows all to well as seen in her comedy special, Say I Won't. And in it, Reyes gives her take on family life post-pandemic where she & her husband opened up their house for a family friend & her son. But now years later, they're still there and suddenly Anjelah has "adopted a single mom."
Fern Brady on her admiration for "Kinky Boots."
"Isn't that amazing? The art that can move people in profound ways," is what mainstay UK comedian Fern Brady said in her acclaimed special Power & Chaos when she learned her mother discovered the broadway musical Kinky Boots for the first time. She also talks about the time a politician tried to cancel her, dealing with being bisexual, internet creeps, drunk teachers and her unique method for practicing gratitude.
David Cross on building a time machine to fix our problems.
Two-time Grammy Award nominee David Cross returned with his latest & consistently dark-funny stand-up special Worst Daddy In The World at the top of this year. And in his special, Cross unpacks how he would fix the world's problems (particularly with America) by building a time machine.
