Abbott and Costello - 43-11-25 - Thanksgiving Dinner

Podcast: Harold’s Old Time Radio
Host: Harold’s Old Time Radio
Episode Date: November 12, 2025
Original Air Date: November 25, 1943

Episode Overview

This classic “Abbott and Costello” radio episode is a raucous Thanksgiving comedy centered on Abbott hosting a formal holiday dinner and Costello's schemes to get invited. Through a series of misunderstandings, malapropisms, puns, and slapstick, Costello tries to join the upper crust festivities, navigate etiquette faux pas, and ultimately causes chaos with disastrous dinner service—including a stolen necklace and mistaken identities. The episode captures the charm of 1940s radio comedy—full of quick wit, vaudeville banter, silly characters, and holiday mayhem.

Main Discussion Points and Segments

1. Thanksgiving Dinner Invitation

• Abbott disinvites Costello: Abbott, planning a ‘snooty set’ dinner, initially refuses to invite Costello due to his lack of etiquette and table manners.

  • Memorable joke about social class and etiquette
    • Costello: “What would I do with a finesse in California?”
    • Abbott: “You don’t need a finesse—if it gets cold, we turn on the gas heater.” (03:13)

• Costello pleads to be invited:

  • Physical comedy and puns about being thin but “hollow.”
    • Costello: “Look at me, Abbott. I only weigh 90 pounds now.”
    • Abbott: “90 pounds? Why, you’re 56 inches around the waist!”
    • Costello: “Yeah, but I’m hollow.” (05:29)

2. Costello's Attempts at Etiquette

• Abbott quizzes Costello on dining etiquette, leading to malapropisms and puns.

  • Classic fork/spoon joke:
    • Abbott: “Which is proper to use when eating peas, a fork or a spoon?”
    • Costello: “I don’t use either one. I just slide my lower lip under the plate and bank the peas off the mashed potatoes.” (04:25)

• Etiquette book gags:

  • Costello: “I’ll buy one of them books on ETI by Emily Pillar.”
  • Abbott: “That’s Emily Post.”
  • Costello: “I’ll read both of them. I’ll go from pillar to post.” (04:14)

3. Chaos in the Kitchen

• Costello helps prepare Thanksgiving dinner and hilariously misinterprets the cookbook.

  • Butter & molasses confusion:
    • Costello: “First I put in two tubs of butter.”
    • Abbott: “That’s tablespoons!”
    • Costello: “I threw them in too. …three gullops of molasses...” (09:13 - 10:01)

• Goose plucking pun:

  • Abbott: “You should be out singeing the feathers off the goose.”
  • Costello: “Sure, I know how to singe—I was singing when you came in!” (10:02)

• Arrival of Chef Kitzel:

  • Kitzel claims to be the famous French chef “Pierre René”—joking “I always come here in the René season.”
  • Kitzel packs his own pot “with a belt around it.” (11:02 - 11:31)

4. Dinner Service & Formalities

• Costello serves as butler, announcing guests and mangling names and titles (“Lord Hip Hop, Knight of the Garter”), and confusion with Lady Jennifer’s “Belgian hair” (rabbit).
  • Black olive martini joke:
    • Lady Jennifer: “Make it a martini with a black olive.”
    • Abbott: “You drink martinis with a black olive?”
    • Lady Jennifer: “Yes, I’m in mourning for my husband.” (19:13)
  • Serving the turkey—pun on “give me the bird”:
    • Abbott: “You give me the bird.”
    • Costello: “In front of everybody?” (13:28)

5. Whodunit—The Missing Necklace

• During dinner, the lights go out and Lady Jennifer’s pearl necklace goes missing. Police arrive, interrogating everyone in slapstick fashion.

  • Officer: “Somebody will get the jug for this. Sounds like you’ve had it already.” (22:13)
  • Series of gags as each guest is accused, with physical comedy and confusion about identities.
  • Resolution: Necklace is found in Lady Jennifer’s tapioca; she admits, “They slipped off my neck into my tapioca.” (23:49)

• Sebastian’s logic for turning out the lights:

  • Abbott: “Who turned out the lights?”
  • Costello: “Because you said you didn’t want to see Louie’s thumb in the soup.” (24:14)

6. Closing Banter

• After the farcical dinner, Costello describes his approach to stuffing the turkey:
  • Costello: “I ground up a lot of bread crumbs and put in garlic. Then I put in a little onions and put in some more garlic, then a whole lot of onions, then a whole lot of garlic…”
  • Abbott: “Did you taste it?”
  • Costello: “Taste it? I couldn’t even get near it.” (26:02)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Cat and chickens pun:

  • Costello: “Your cat just had chickens…”
  • Abbott: “You mean kittens—cats don’t have chickens!”
  • Costello: “Well, your cat just had them.” (01:28)

• Etiquette confusion:

  • Costello: “Etiquette and tickety, it’s the same thing.” (04:10)

• Frozen ink pun:

  • Costello: “Then what is frozen ink?”
  • Abbott: “Ice stink!”
  • Costello: “You’ll get no argument out of me.” (14:27)

• Serving mishaps:

  • Abbott: “Remember, I don’t want to see your thumb in the soup.”
  • Costello: “Okay, I’ll fix that.” (turns off the light) (21:05)

• Malapropisms galore:

  • “You not only humilify me, but you have impud on my good name.” (06:57)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Costello pleads for a Thanksgiving invitation: 05:29
• Table manners & etiquette gags: 03:11 - 04:49
• Kitchen chaos and cookbook jokes: 09:13 - 10:01
• Chef Kitzel’s entrance: 11:02 – 11:31
• Funny guest announcements at the dinner: 18:03 – 19:45
• Black olive martini pun: 19:13
• “Give me the bird” joke: 13:28
• Missing necklace & police interrogation: 21:08 – 23:49
• Stuffing the turkey with garlic and onions: 26:02

Tone and Language

The entire episode is in the fast-paced, wisecracking style of classic vaudeville. Malapropisms, verbal puns, misheard words, and gentle slapstick abound, with Abbott as the straight man and Costello’s childlike literalism and confusion driving the comedy. The episode emphasizes light-hearted lampooning of upper-class manners and Thanksgiving traditions.

Summary

For fans of radio’s golden age or lovers of classic comedy, this Thanksgiving special is a perfect slice of comic Americana. Abbott and Costello’s wordplay-filled antics, Costello’s mischievous innocence, the parade of eccentric characters, and the comedic escalation around a disastrous holiday dinner highlight the best of old-time radio humor—timeless, silly, and joyfully irreverent.