Duncan Trussell Family Hour #723: "Ain't No Turkey King"

Date: November 10, 2025
Host: Duncan Trussell
Guest/Sidekick: Josh
Episode Theme: A comedic, psychedelic critique of Thanksgiving, turkey, and tradition, blended with surreal rants about political change, collective awakening, and dark American absurdity.

Episode Overview

Duncan Trussell dives into the existential and culinary complexities of Thanksgiving, focusing a scathing, hilarious light on turkey as the “scam food” of the season. He interweaves wild tangents on sociopolitics (including commentary on New York's new socialist mayor, Zoran Mamdani), reflections on societal “awakening,” and darkly funny family/carnival horror stories. Throughout, the show pulses with Duncan’s signature blend of irreverence, satire, and cosmic speculation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Turkey is a Scam” Rant

• Turkey's Uniqueness as a Dish: Duncan begins by lampooning turkey as an overrated, once-a-year food forced on Americans.
  • “Turkey is a scam. And when November comes around, we're all forced to confront something that I think most of us don't really want to look square in the eye, which is that if turkey is a scam... how many other things have we been tricked into doing and believing?” (01:00)
• No “Turkey King:” Questions why there’s no fast-food chain centered on turkey if it’s so allegedly good, compared to Burger King or Chick-fil-A.
  • “Where's the Turkey King? ... If it's so good, if it's such a delicious meat, where is it?” (03:21)
• Sunk Cost Fallacy: Turkey’s cultural persistence explained as a collective “sunk cost fallacy”—we keep making it, hoping next time it’ll be good.
  • “Turkey is the classic example of sunk cost fallacy because you only make it once a year.” (02:42)
• Nostalgia & Ritual: Acknowledges that the only redeeming part of turkey is the familiar, pleasant smell—possibly more about nostalgia than taste.
  • “Cooking turkey smells good. There's something comfortable about the smell of turkey... which is why you should get turkey incense and make steaks for Thanksgiving.” (05:26)

2. Political & Social Commentary: “Salt Mining” and the Rise of Zoran Mamdani

• Salt Mining: Enjoyment found in observing both political sides when opponents freak out after an election.
  • “If you are a salt miner, if you're a true salt miner, you're bipartisan in your salt mining. You don't just salt mine when the guy you agree with wins. You salt mine across the fucking board.” (07:21)
• New York’s Socialist Mayor: Dissects reactions to Zoran Mamdani’s election—admiring the energy but skeptical of practical outcomes.
  • “Somehow a 30-something socialist, maybe communist, has taken the reins of New York City. I want it to work. I don't think it will, but I want it to.” (09:02)
• Practical Utopianism: Warns that ambitious progressive reforms (rent freeze, free buses/food, expanded labor protections) face entrenched power and financial realities.
  • “That's where it stops working. Yeah, right there is the problem is where the money comes from. But before we get to that part, the idea itself is good.” (16:04)
• Class War & Systemic Inertia: Points out that rapid change often backfires by driving out those with means, leading to more struggles for those who are supposed to be helped.
  • “You can't just come in, guns blaze, and say you're gonna freeze the fucking rent and socialize everything. Because then... all the people who want to hold onto their money and don't want to get taxed, they either put it in tax shelters or they fucking bail.” (22:57)

3. Debate on Landlords and Wealth Inequality

• Tongue-in-Cheek Defense of Landlords: Offers satirical praise, misquoting Marx to lampoon the idea.
  • “Karl Marx. I'll quote Karl Marx. I have it memorized. There is no more noble being than the landlord. They keep our buildings painted and they will fix our plumbing issues and they deserve every penny they get. I'm misquoting a little bit, but that's pretty much communists in the chat, you know, that's what Karl Marx said.” (18:53)
• Class Conversations Matter: Even if grand visions are doomed, simply raising class as a topic helps “wake people up.”
  • “The very least, the conversation of class comes up. The conversation of, like, capitalism comes up... Is that good? Is that okay? Are you okay with that?” (21:11)

4. Overarching Metaphor: Waking Up from Tradition & Programming

• From "Fool" to "Magician": Duncan says collective consciousness is evolving—from blindly following tradition (the ‘Fool’ tarot), to creating one’s own reality (the ‘Magician’).
  • “Consciousness is going from the fool Tarot card to the magician Tarot card... Now we're going into the magician phase is probably what's happening.” (37:14)
• Thanksgiving as “Cat Turd Holiday”: Trussell lampoons enforced gratitude and the whitewashing of history.
  • “You get fucking Thanksgiving. Just this like cat turd of a fucking holiday... Enforced thanks is not thanks at all.” (41:39)
• Big Turkey as Emotional Hijacker: Claims “Big Turkey” exploits nostalgia and family love to sell a bland product.
  • “Big turkey. Hijacked our love of our grandmothers to sell shitty bird meat.” (44:11)

5. Dark, Surreal Thanksgiving Stories ("Screamsgiving")

Carnival Tilt-a-Whirl Horror (50:05)

• True-crime style: teenage love triangle, possible affair, disastrous carnival ride accident, almost supernatural in its gruesomeness.
  • “The description is it looked like someone deflated blow up dolls that had been filled with blood.” (60:09)

The Cannibal Butcher Shop (65:00)

• A butcher’s remains are packaged into turkeys and possibly consumed by community members; a cautionary tale against processed meats.

The Secret Note Family Game (69:35)

• Family plays a “game” where anonymous secrets are written about each other—one reveals a covered-up murder and staged accident.

• Moral: Sometimes, the “danger isn’t out there in the world. It’s right beside the people you trust the most. So this year, when you sit down to dinner, give thanks not just for the people at the table, but for the secrets that haven’t made the front page about you.” (74:06)

6. Other Highlights & Memorable Moments

• On Fried Turkeys & Dangerous Trends:

  • “Why don't you just get drones to fly into people's backyards and spray them with acid instead of encouraging people to do that?” (43:17)

• AI, “Slop” Content, and Democratization of Media:

  • Discusses the rise of AI-generated media and rebranding “slop” (cheap, mass-produced content) as possibly an equalizing force for creative voices.
  • “A sort of monolithic denouncement of AI generated content. Seems a little shortsighted.” (88:53)

• Debate on AI Porn:

  • Satirizes the ethics of AI-generated pornography versus human porn, joking about using porn as an actual medical brain shrinker.
  • “If really shrinks your brain, it seems like it could really help... If somebody comes in with a head injury and they're having brain swelling, you'd feel like, dude, get. What kind of porn do they like?” (94:12)

Notable Quotes

• On Tradition & Sunk Cost:
  • “Turkey is the classic example of sunk cost fallacy because you only make it once a year.” (02:42)
• On Social Awakening:
  • “People have begun to realize that the stories we tell ourselves about the world are what creates the world. We wag the dog.” (35:48)
• On Family & Manipulation:
  • “Like, there's a few things that matter in the world... If they could, they would have done it by now. They definitely would have done it by now. If there was a way to quantify that shit and you tax it, they would have figured out a way to tax it. They can't.” (47:12)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening Rant on Turkey: 00:02 – 07:00
• Fast food/Turkey King Analogy: 03:21 – 05:30
• Salt Mining and Political Rants: 07:21 – 11:00
• Debate on Utopian Socialism: 11:00 – 20:25
• Name Fumbling / Zoran Mamdani Speech & Analysis: 20:25 – 31:26
• Meta-Reflection: Fool to Magician: 37:14 – 41:00
• Holiday Slander (Thanksgiving as Cat Turd): 41:39 – 44:30
• Dark Thanksgiving Stories ("Screamsgiving") Begins: 50:05
• Carnival Tilt-a-Whirl Incident: 50:05 – 62:58
• Cannibal Butcher Thanksgiving: 65:00 – 67:40
• Family Secret-Game and Murder Reveal: 69:35 – 74:06
• AI, Slop & Media Creation Debate: 85:06 – 88:53
• AI Porn/Ethics & Brain Shrinking Bit: 93:20 – 94:38

Tone & Style

Duncan Trussell’s language is uproarious, irreverent, and performatively neurotic—oscillating between cosmic-philosophical, satirical, and darkly funny. His comedic style leans heavily into absurdity and free-association (“cat turd holiday,” “Big Turkey,” “salt mining”), delivered with comic exaggeration, but often landing on genuine insights about culture, tradition, and systemic dysfunction.

Summary Takeaway

This episode takes the classic “why do we eat turkey at Thanksgiving?” rant and spirals it into a wider meditation on tradition, manipulation (“Big Turkey”), social change (the election of a leftist mayor), and the shadows lurking beneath the family table. With wild storytelling, political irreverence, and dark wit, Trussell makes a plea for more authenticity—both in our politics and our holidays: question cultural programming, cherish real connection, and maybe, just maybe, let turkey go.

Recommended For: Listeners who enjoy surreal, philosophical, and darkly comedic takes on American tradition, left-right political absurdity, and who don’t mind a side of existential horror with their holiday banter.