Thanksgiving is coming: Do you want a turducken?

Turducken is like the Extreme Mountain Dew-Drinking Skateboarder of the world of Thanksgiving dinner. Is your Thanksgiving dinner boring? PUNCH IT UP WITH TURDUCKEN!

Turducken and turducken-like meats have been popular in Europe and the UK for hundreds of years. But what really popularized this creation on American shores was John Madden, who lost his mind over turducken during an NFL broadcast, and went on to let his turducken freak flag fly many times over. (He once awarded a turducken to the winning team of the Thanksgiving Bowl.)

My family has done turducken twice. The first time, it was crazy salty. Like, inedibly salty. The second time it was pretty good, although it lacked much in the way of texture. It was kind of like eating the meat equivalent of a loaf of white bread, if that makes any sense.

By the way, I strongly advise against trying to make your own turducken. Have you ever tried to debone a chicken? It's basically an impossible task. And making turducken means you'll have to do it three times in a row, then stuff each into the other without ruining it. Forget it - just buy a premade one.

However, years later my family is literally still talking about it. Every year it comes up again over Thanksgiving dinner. And this leads me to the #1 reason why you might want to get turducken for Thanksgiving: it is the ultimate conversation piece.

There's only so much a person can say about a regular turkey. Once you say "it's so juicy" and state your dark/light meat preference, you're done. But a turducken can provide hours of conversation, both that year and for years to come.

Depending on the family, this can be the most amazing holiday gift of all. After all, every minute your racist conservative grandma spends talking about "that time we had the turducken" is a minute she doesn't spend talking about "the Meskins" or "the gays."

Image courtesy Flickr/are you gonna eat that