How Adam Sandler’s 'The Thanksgiving Song' Went from a “Saturday Night Live” Bit to a Yearly Tradition

Sandler debuted the song in 1992, and the comedic tribute to eating turkey has become a staple for fans nationwide

• Adam Sandler played “The Thanksgiving Song” for the first time during a 1992 episode of Saturday Night Live

• He later included the song on his 1993 debut album, They're All Gonna Laugh at You!, and it began receiving radio play

• In the decades since, the track has become a comedy classic, and music has become a key part of Sandler’s comedy

In November 1992, Adam Sandler sat behind Saturday Night Live’s "Weekend Update" desk and changed his life. Seated next to anchor Kevin Nealon, he sang, for the first time “The Thanksgiving Song,” accompanying himself on guitar.

Sandler’s song included lyrics like “Love to eat turkey / Cause it’s good / Love to eat turkey / Like a good boy should” and “Turkey for me / Turkey for you / Let’s eat the turkey / In my big brown shoe.” Its lyrics also included references to pop culture moments, past and present, the way Sandler, 58, would again in 1994 with “The Chanukah Song.” Nealon, 71, also eventually joined in and sang with Sandler at the end.

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Sandler’s comedy during his SNL tenure became defined in many ways by his original songs, and in a rare 2019 interview with NPR, the Happy Gilmore star explained how music became such a core part of his humor.

He started playing guitar in bands in middle school, and when he went to college at New York University he figured he’d start a new one. “And then I saw these guys playing. And everybody was literally 20 times better than me. I was like, what the hell is going on at this school? Everybody was Eddie Van Halen,” he remembered.

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He had also started doing stand-up in high school and decided to pursue that again. But, he said, “I used to get so scared on stage and so nervous when I didn't have a guitar. And I'd forget my lines. I'd forget my jokes, that kind of thing. And then, when I started playing guitar on stage and singing funny tunes, I had more confidence than usual. At least I could ... I knew I could play guitar a little bit, and I knew the lines already from the song. I was like, okay, I memorized that, so let me just try that.”

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It worked, and eventually, Sandler got scooped up by SNL, where he continued with his music-based humor.

Sandler wrote “The Thanksgiving Song” with comedy writers Ian Maxtone-Graham and Robert Smigel. Maxtone-Graham would also co-write “The Chanukah Song” and Sandler and Smigel became frequent collaborators.

In 1993, Sandler released his first comedy album, They're All Gonna Laugh at You!. He included a live version of “The Thanksgiving Song” on it. Sandler told Spin in 2013, “I had no idea whether or not people would like the album ... ‘The Thanksgiving Song’ getting on radio helped a lot; it gave some awareness. ‘The Thanksgiving Song’ was a little dirty and then people got the record and we hit them pretty hard with the really dirty stuff. I’ve had a few mothers yell at me over the years that their kids used to listen to the album in the basement.”

In 1993, Sandler also performed “The Thanksgiving Song” for a second time on SNL — but this time in the style of Bruce Springsteen and with more Springsteen-esque rhymes.

Sandler ultimately was fired from Saturday Night Live in 1995, but “The Thanksgiving Song” lived on. In 1996, “The Chanukah Song" became a hit on the rock charts (and charted on the Hot 100), so “The Thanksgiving Song” was released as a single the next year. It reached No. 40 on the Adult Top 40 and still receives radio play every year.

Sandler also returned to the SNL stage with a new song he sang with Andy Samberg — “That’s When You Break” — for the show’s 40th anniversary celebration.

Sandler’s comedy music continued to be part of his persona, too. The Wedding Singer — a 1988 smash film starring Sandler and now-frequent collaborator Drew Barrymore — also featured him singing multiple humorous tracks and perhaps the sweetest song in his discography, “I Wanna Grow Old with You.” In 2023, he also starred in the animated musical Leo.