A Thanksgiving Carol

A Thanksgiving Carol
	Season 4, Episode 22
	Episode guide
Previous; Lonely Lyon	Next; A Whole Zoo World

A Thanksgiving Carol is the twenty second episode of season four and the Thanksgiving special.

Synopsis

Adam wonders why none of his animal friends share his hype about Thanksgiving. That night, he is visited by three (technically four) ghosts, who teach him why the holiday has such a scary reputation.

Plot

It's the last day of school before Thanksgiving break, and Adam Lyon's very excited for it, since Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday. The animals at Charles Darwin Middle School don't care for Thanksgiving, and Adam doesn't get why the animals wouldn't love a holiday like Thanksgiving, and no one will explain to him why.

That night, Adam's visited by three---technically four---ghosts: Ingrid, the Ghost of Thanksgiving Past, Windsor and Slips are the Ghosts of Thanksgiving Present, and finally Jake, the Ghost of Thanksgiving Yet to Come (Adam was also visited by the "ghost" of Principal Pixiefrog, who had told him that he'd be visited by three spirits). They all try to get Adam to hate Thanksgiving, but Adam ends up loving Thanksgiving even more and even his friends end up loving it. However, during Jake's turn to "haunt" Adam, they're at the grocery store and the last thing Adam has to buy is a turkey, but all the turkeys are gone. He then thinks that the reason animals hate Thanksgiving is because humans eat turkey (which would seem like the most obvious reason).

He then gets a tofu turkey from the local health food store, which he presents to his animal friends, but they're disgusted by it and explain that humans eating turkey on Thanksgiving is not the reason why animals hate the holiday. Adam's confused by that, and asks why they hate Thanksgiving. Jake explains that animals actually hate Thanksgiving because of the parades, and they all go to enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving feast with Adam.

Characters

Major Roles

Minor Roles

Trivia

This is the Thanksgiving special.
The title and plot obviously parody A Christmas Carol.
This episode first aired four months after "A Whole Zoo World", the series finale.
The billboard read "The End is Near", referencing to the impending end of the series, due to this episode being the last one before the series finale, despite the odd airing schedule (it aired a few months after the series finale).
Adam is shown to be a football fan in this episode, probably becoming interested in it, after becoming the school football team's quarterback.
Adam puts the Yule Log channel on in his room, to warm him up.
This episode reveals that Adam and Kerry Anderson have known each other their entire lives, and that Adam's family spent their first Thanksgiving at Kerry's house.
Adam and Kerry kiss in this episode, though it's learned that they've already kissed years ago, back when they were only babies.
The fourth wall is subtly broken, when The Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past tell Adam that the show's about to start, when sitting in the auditorium. Adam responds, saying the show had already started 15 minutes ago. At this point, the episode had been going on for 15 minutes.
One of the rare times Coach Gills appeared, without being accompanied by Horace].
Jake makes a reference to the episode's parody on A Christmas Carol, saying that Adam "Really went to town on the Dickens themed bedroom thing." This is a nod to Charles Dickens, the writer of A Christmas Carol, and how Adam's room has been remodeled in this episode, to fit the room of Scrooge's, as shown in the story.
This episode features no special ending credits gag, simply having normal credits play on the backdrop of a chalkboard, while an instrumental version of the theme song played.
Lupe Toucan, one of Adam's animal friends, does appear in this episode, but her appearance could be considered more of a cameo, since she doesn't have a major role in this episode.
- She's also the only one of Adam's animal friends who doesn't appear as Thanksgiving ghost, although when Jake first came into Adam's room as the Ghost of Thanksgiving Yet to Come, Jake claims that Lupe would've been terrible as the Ghost of Thanksgiving Yet to Come, which is especially ironic, considering her lack of dialogue in this episode.
In "The Notorious Windsor Gorilla", it was established that the school had no art class. However, this episode clearly showed a class with "Art Class" explicitly printed on the door, where Adam and Jake were spinning clay. This episode could have taken place afterwards, though.
The aura of Ingrid's Ghost disappears as soon as they travel back in time and is never seen again since. Additionally, none of the future ghosts have auras.
- In fact, The Ghost of Principal Pixiefrog appeared at the very end of the episode, also lacking his ghostly aura or pale while color, that he had before.
Mr. Mandrill said he didn't even know what Thanksgiving was, when Adam and Jake first talked to him, but when The Ghosts of Thanksgiving Present took Adam to see the school play, Mr. Mandrill was an actor, lamenting about Thanksgiving.