Holidays often evoke mixed emotions for queer people. Aside from being thrown into the same room with scary, distant family members you rarely see, Thanksgiving offers more than just an opportunity to eat for some people. Whether family visits are off the table or the food is disappointing, many LGBTQ+ TV shows offer glimpses of the holiday spirit.
Find here the best queer Thanksgiving episodes that still make us laugh.
1. Will & Grace “H-mo for the Holidays” (Season 2, Episode 7)
Few shows celebrated the holidays like this. Will & Grace, but any fan will tell you that Jack (Sean Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally) stole the show. One of the gayest characters ever created, Jack reveals that his mother (Veronica Cartwright) doesn’t know he’s gay and their bizarre Thanksgiving Add spice and spark to your feast.
2. Master of None “Thanksgiving” (Season 2, Episode 8)
Few shows have garnered as much acclaim as this episode. master of none, which made Lena Waithe famous and helped propel her into Emmy contention. The standout episode comes after Denise (Waithe) tells her mother (Angela Bassett) that she’s queer. Although this series and its creators have experienced some controversy recently, this episode remains one of his most praised episodes, holiday or not.
3. Umm “Thanxgiving” (Season 1, Episode 32)
This YouTube series may be one of the most influential for modern drag queens, and it’s just two cross-dressers in front of a green screen. rupaul’s drag race Season 7 sisters Trixie Mattel and Katya covered it all in almost seven years and over 200 episodes. Still, their first bizarre Thanksgiving episode remains one of the series’ best.
4. Modern Family “Punkin Chunkin” (Season 3, Episode 9)
Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) take center stage on Thanksgiving Day, with the latter questioning the truth behind the former’s story. modern family There’s a reason it’s dominated television for over a decade, and its queer characters play a big role.
5. Will & Grace “Mid-80s Loews” (Season 3, Episodes 8 & 9)
To top last season’s excellent Queer Thanksgiving episode, this gay sitcom doubled in length. The show took viewers back to her ’80s and showed the origin story of how this famous duo became friends. This episode also includes the backstory of how Jack and Will met, how Karen and Rosario met, and how Will and Grace dated (and quickly broke up). While most holiday episodes provide fillers and extras, this series’ highlights provide some of the most important moments for the characters and their stories.
6. Bob’s Burgers “Turkey in a Can” (Season 4, Episode 5)
No Best Showcase of Episodes bob’s burger‘ He has a talent for balancing absurd humor with healthy humor. When Bob tries to make a turkey dinner for his family, he is sabotaged and sets out to find the culprit while protecting his spare. This episode includes a queer detour that shows that queer inclusion in comedy is possible for everyone.
7. Will & Grace “The Moving Feast” (Season 4, Episodes 9 & 10)
Firmly in the groove that propelled the series past 200 episodes, the fourth season used a bizarre Thanksgiving episode to highlight the show’s many recurring characters. That’s the highlight of what the show does most successfully, covering all the bases and throwing in jokes every step of the way.
8. Superstore “Black Friday” (Season 2, Episode 10)
In the capitalist era, Thanksgiving is synonymous with Black Friday, the self-proclaimed busiest shopping day of the year. There are people lining up from 3am, super store It shows the other side of the holidays for retail workers. Although the show never gained a large fan base, it perfectly represented the best of 2010s sitcoms.
9. Schitt’s Creek “Turkey Shoot” (Season 1, Episode 7)
Still tapping into the Rose family’s “rich-to-poor” reality, “Turkey Shoot” follows David (Dan Levy) and Stevie (Emily Hampshire) as they head into the woods for an actual country Thanksgiving. The situation is depicted. While undoubtedly hilarious, this episode highlights the often-hard-to-find compromise between her two worlds merging.
10. High Maintenance “Ex” (Season 1, Episode 6)
Despite focusing on New York pot dealers, the web series that became an HBO series still managed to provide some touching and bizarre storytelling when needed. The end of the show’s first season dares to take the truth behind the characters’ marijuana smoking to a heartfelt and surreal place.
11. Modern Family “Thanksgiving Jamboree” (Season 8, Episode 7)
Back at the Dunphy house, queer icons Cam and Mitchell decide to host a Thanksgiving dinner that brings chaos and holiday humor. In this episode, the whole family unites and quickly plunges into a family merry atmosphere.
12. Glee “Thanksgiving” (Season 4, Episode 8)
Season 4 of Fox’s musical comedy saw most of the cast graduate and leave for a while. As the graduates go on vacation, longtime characters like Mercedes (Amber Riley), Quinn (Dianna Agron), and Santana (Naya Rivera) return to the field to help them prepare for the competition. In New York City, Rachel (Lea Michele) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) are celebrating alone before the arrival of Kurt’s boss (Sarah Jessica Parker).
13. Orange Is the New Black “Faxgiving” (Season 1, Episode 9)
Netflix’s success as a streaming giant comes down to its first series debut. orange is the new black, a drama about a wealthy woman who is sent to prison. Not only does this episode show the ruthless cruelty of the prison system, but it also fully expresses the strangeness of the characters. Who would have thought that Laverne Cox’s haircut would provoke such philosophical questions about love and gender?
14. Will & Grace “Queens for a Day” (Season 7, Episodes 10 & 11)
After some time off from holiday-themed episodes, Thanksgiving resumed and the group was taken to Queens. The episode follows Will (Eric McCormick) and his boyfriend Vince (Bobby Cannavale)’s attempts to impress Vince’s mother. With the end of the series impending, this episode showed that the series still had the gas it needed for a fire episode.
15. Lady Gaga & The Muppets Holiday Spectacular (2013)
Granted, this special was a one-off, but few holiday specials generate as much excitement as Lady Gaga’s collaboration on the Muppets’ then-just-released song “ARTPOP.” This sounds like a gay boy’s fever dream, but the special offers guest songs from RuPaul, the creepiest Gaga, and an hour of covers by The Muppets.
