The Thanksgiving Special

Mordecai and Rigby accidentally wreck the park's Thanksgiving dinner by playing football in the house. The other park workers decide to replace the meal before their families arrive, refusing to let Mordecai and Rigby help. The duo then sees a commercial on TV advertising a contest to write a Thanksgiving song with the chance of winning a “turducken” (a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey). They decide to enter the contest but quickly find that writing the song isn't as easy as they thought.

Meanwhile, Benson, Pops, and Skips go to the store for another turkey and get in a battle with three men dressed as a pilgrim, an Indian, and a turkey over the last one in stock eventually run over in the street. Muscle Man and High-Five Ghost go out for more sides and get in an end zone dance competition with Broc Stettman, a football player. Thomas goes to the airport to pick up the park workers' families. Mordecai and Rigby get caught in traffic and ride from Margaret's father Frank in his weather helicopter. They arrive just in time to enter, still very unprepared. The previous entry, in which a billionaire, Richard Buckner, paid a group of professional singers to write and perform, is the clear favorite.

As Mordecai and Rigby are about to start, Thomas informs them that their families’ flights have been delayed to the following day. They decide to sing about how family and friends are more important than food, with Buckner's back-up musicians joining in, and win the contest. However, Buckner, furious over his loss, steals the turducken. The rest of the park workers, who saw the song on TV, decide to work with their rivals to get it back. They catch his blimp, and he reveals that the reason he wants the turducken is because it has a golden wishbone that actually grants wishes, and he wants to gain rights to Thanksgiving and have all his employees thank him, much to Mordecai and Rigby's shock. Mordecai and Rigby fight Buckner with help from their friends; however, they fall out of the blimp, but not before swiping the wishbone and replacing it with Rigby's spoons. Buckner makes his wish, only to realize that Mordecai and Rigby have deceived him, moments before the blimp crashes and kills him. While falling, Mordecai and Rigby wish to be safe at home with their families and break the bone just in time. After appearing back at the house, Thomas informs them he was mistaken about the flights being delayed (having checked the departure schedule instead of the arrivals), and their families, along with Broc and his team, Farmer Jimmy, some of Buckner's singers, and the three costumed men, are already there and have replaced the dinner. Benson gives Mordecai and Rigby a toast thanking them for saving Thanksgiving, and the episode ends with everyone eating the meal.

The episode was written and storyboarded by Benton Connor, Toby Jones, Andres Salaff, and Calvin Wong and was directed by the series creator J. G. Quintel and supervising producer Mike Roth. The episode includes guest stars' Terry Crews, Chord Overstreet, LaToya Luckett and Josh Keaton. The episode even included two original songs, What Are You Thankful For? and Chewing on Freedom.

According to J. G. Quintel, this episode "has some really awesome songs, but [they] ended up having to record the people in the songs all at separate times and that was really challenging."[1]

The episode was watched by 3.04 million viewers.[2]

Stettman's football jersey resembles the jersey used by the NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in the 1970s. The water tower in the episode also has the current logo of Cartoon Network. The episode's main antagonist, Richard Buckner, is a parody of businessman, television host, and future United States President Donald Trump.

• "The Thanksgiving Special" at IMDb