For some families, Thanksgiving doesn't feel proper if there isn't a massive turkey on the dinner table, while others are against the day if football isn't involved. And I'd have to assume there are plenty out there who just can't do any celebrating without Friends being involved. Though Thanksgiving may not boast the mountainous pop culture love that Halloween and Christmas get, the holiday is definitely a key part of Friends' decade-long history – it gave us the relatively rare Brad Pitt TV role, after all – and Courteney Cox gave fans the best callback possible to celebrate the day.
With a video post that initially seemed like it was going to be at the expense of fans' enjoyment, Courteney Cox took to Instagram to share her fatigue over the shared proliferation of GIFs showcasing her infamous turkey-headed dance from Season 5's "The One with All the Thanksgivings." But instead of only faux-angrily chastising everyone, the former Friends star gave everyone exactly what they were looking for. Check it out below!
While "22nd anniversaries" normally aren't a very popular influence for widespread celebrations, I am starting to rethink our overall negligence for such things after watching Courteney Cox revive Monica Geller's turkey-head shimmy on the 22nd anniversary of Friends' fifth Thanksgiving episode airing on NBC. (Well, anniversary-ISH, since the episode actually aired on November 19, 1998.) And you know what, that turkey doesn't look like it's aged 22 years at all, and neither does Cox.
One has to wonder how long Courteney Cox was planning to set this up, since it takes a certain kind of preparation to jam one's head inside a big ol' raw turkey. I guess it helps that she'd already gone through the experience on Friends, even though that turkey wasn't real. Does sticking your head inside a turkey create the same kind of muscle memory as riding a bike? Does the smell create nostalgic feelings? Did she eat this turkey afterward, regardless of whether or not it was real? The questions never end, clearly.
For many fans, "The One with All the Thanksgivings" is the quintessential Friends holiday episode – it may or may not have topped our ranked list of Thanksgiving-themed installments – and watching Joey and Monica don that large uncooked turkey on their heads is one of the many reasons why people love it so much. It's not exactly the kind of scene you can find in other '90s sitcoms like Seinfeld or Home Improvement, although it's strange in hindsight that Tim Allen's Tim Taylor didn't get stuck in a turkey at some point.
Even though Thanksgiving is over now, Friends fans can still check out all ten of those themed episodes streaming right now on HBO Max, which is where the long-awaited reunion special will air in 2021. While waiting to see everyone back together again, head to our Fall 2020 premiere schedule and our 2021 Winter and Spring TV rundown.
