Try as they might, a performer can never quite predict what will resonate with an audience. How many great musicians have toiled with their muses to create complex compositions, only to be celebrated for a novelty hit? (Answer: more than a few, I am sure.) This leads us to the case of Courteney Cox, who for 236 episodes, delighted us on Friends, never thinking it would be the damn turkey-head dance that would pester her decades later.
Based on a video Cox uploaded to Instagram on Thursday, it would appear that well-meaning people bombarding her with “Happy Thanksgiving” GIFs has turned her mind into stuffing. “If I get one more [bleep] GIF of that turkey on my head dancing like a [bleep] fool, I’m just gonna’ snap!”
Perhaps in an effort to end it once and for all (or an understanding that showfolk must give the people what they want) she then reenacted the famous bird boogie. Whether or not the fowl in question was later cooked and eaten is unknown.
Yes, the glasses are too small and there’s no hat, but the frug-like shimmy earns bonus points.
Cox’s Friends co-star Lisa Kudrow was quick to cheer her on with a “You DID THAT!!” comment, and Reese Witherspoon added “Love you sister!”
Celeste Barber, Sean Hayes, Isla Fisher, Kathy Najimy, and many others jumped in the comments, too.
“The One With All The Thanksgivings” first aired during Friends‘s fifth season, on November 19, 1998. In it, Monica Geller puts a turkey on her head (with a fez and enormous sunglasses) and does a dance for Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), in an attempt to apologize for accidentally cutting off his toe years earlier. (It’s complicated.)
The best part of the clip is when Chandler confesses his love for Monica and we, the audience, project an emotional reaction onto a blank, or, at least, non-human face. This is like the Kuleshov Effect without editing, only poultry.
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