The Funniest Holiday-Themed, TV-Sitcom Episodes

There are so many great episodes of classic sitcoms devoted to the holiday season; Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's are natural times for family strife, and thus, natural comedic fodder for the 22-minute yuk-watching set. Here are my opinions of the funniest holiday-themed episodes. Be sure to include your favorite if it isn't included here in the comments section below.

"WKRP in Cincinnati" episode "Turkeys Away", first aired October 30, 1978, is one of the funniest television episodes ever, let alone a holiday themed show. Station manager Arthur Carlson is bored and decides to show the young people how it's done by putting on a major promotion for Thanksgiving. He asks other oldsters Herb and Les to help with the plan. Herb gets 20 live turkeys. Les commentates at the shopping mall where the promotion is to occur. No one other than Mr. Carlson knows what is going to happen next. A helicopter hovers overhead and suddenly objects are thrown out of the copter - could it be skydivers?

The mall parking lot is pelted from above with live turkeys. Les has nowhere to hide after peeving off the store owner whose entrance he's been blocking. "Oh the humanity", Les cries as the turkeys mount a counter-offense. Later, back at the station, Mr. Carlson has the funniest last word in TV history: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." If this list were in order, this episode of "WKRP" would be the top funniest for sure.

What Mary Tyler Moore's Mary Richards was to dinner parties, Friends' character Monica Geller surely is to Thanksgiving. Every year since the show premiered, Monica has tried to put on a nice holiday dinner for her friends, taking on the responsibility that used to belong to each of their parents. The first year she tried was "The One Where Underdog Gets Away". A funny episode that shows its MTM roots by having Monica break into high-pitched crying at the end reminiscent of poor Mary Richards after a dinner party went awry. But there is an even funnier Thanksgiving "Friends". And it isn't "The One with the Rumor" and which featured Brad Pitt as a guest star high-school friend of Monica's and Ross's and nemesis of Rachel played by at that time real-life beau Jennifer Aniston. Given how that relationship ended, the episode's focus on Pitt's character founding an "I Hate Rachel Green" club with Ross back in high school a little sad.

No, the "Friends" episode deserving of honors is surely sixth season episode "The One Where Ross Got High". This is the episode where Rachel tries to make the desert (an English trifle) on her own - and a sticky recipe page results in her mixing layers of beef, peas, and onions with whipped cream and jam. Chandler finds out Monica's parents don't like him because Ross blamed him back in college for the smell of marijuana that came from Ross's bedroom one night.

Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles as Monica's and Ross's parents are at their funniest here and Pickles gets the best moment after friend after friend shares lots of personal information including that Monica and Chandler are living together and that Ross married Rachel and got divorced for a third time (and Rachel realizing she wasn't supposed to put beef in the trifle, Joey wanting to leave to spend the holiday with his hot roommates and her dancer-friends, and Phoebe being in love with Jacques Cousteau). "That's a lot of information to get in 30 seconds," she says.

"Friends" doesn't just skewer Thanksgiving however. Their forte is the winter holiday. In addition to some very funny Thanksgiving episodes, there's the funniest Hanukkah episode of a TV sitcom, "The One with the Holiday Armadillo". Ross has custody of his son for the holidays and wants to teach Ben about his Jewish heritage and Hanukkah. Ben wants nothing to do with it - he's celebrated Christmas every year with his lesbian Moms and he wants to see Santa Claus. Ross relents and goes at the last minute to get a Santa outfit - except it's too close to Christmas. The only outfit he could get? An armadillo. The holiday armadillo is, it turns out, Santa's part-Jewish friend. The armadillo teaches Ben the meaning of Hanukkah, though not before Chandler as Santa Claus and Joey as Superman both show up. At the end of the episode, they all light the menorah. Phoebe and Rachel walk in. "It looks like the Easter Bunny's funeral in here," Rachel says. To which flighty Phoebe adds, "I understand why Santa Claus and Superman are here but why is there a porcupine at the Easter Bunny's funeral?" For laughs, Phoebe, for laughs.

"Friends" also takes honors for funniest New Year's episodes. Of course there's "The One with the Routine". It's a bit dated with its reference to the dreaded non-issue of Y2K and computers. But it features Ross and Monica doing their over-the-top dance routine on Dick Clark's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" telecast. Even funnier is "The One with all the Resolutions". The episode opens with the countdown to Midnight and focuses on the resolutions made by each friend. Monica resolves to take more pictures. Phoebe resolves to pilot a plane. Rachel resolves not to gossip. Chandler resolves not to make fun of anyone. And Ross resolves to do something new every day - which results in his getting locked in a date's bathroom with a pair of leather pants pulled down around his knees and his legs covered in powder and lotion. This is a classic episode that manages to be funny and move continuing plots forward - by the end of the episode, Rachel's resolution is tested when she realizes Monica and Chandler are together.

If you're sick and tired of all the holiday conventions, pull out the aluminum pole and air some grievances - it's time for the Festivus for the rest of us, the universally themed Festivus. "Seinfeld" has the unique honor of being the only show that's resulted in the creation and celebration of an actual holiday on episode "The Strike". The seemingly forever unemployed Kramer, it turns out, has been on strike since the late 1980s from his job at H&H Bagels. The strike is settled and Kramer returns to work. Meanwhile, it's revealed that, as a child, George's father didn't believe in celebrating Christmas - instead he celebrated the made-up Festivus. The holiday had an aluminum pole instead of a tree, and dinner was for airing of grievances - to list all the ways that your family and friends have let you down over the past year. But Festivus doesn't end until the wrestling match where someone has to pin Frank Costanza.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, and even Festivus are all represented on this list. I hope that a laugh-out-loud funny Kwanza themed episode comes around before long. Happy holidays.