Jimmy Fallon Shares Bizarre Thanksgiving Traditions: Ham Slap, Anyone?

Let us give thanks for Jimmy Fallon, for the Sagaponack resident prepared a cornucopia of Thanksgiving fun—and a special guest star—to help us get into the holiday spirit.

On the November 16 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the lovable host shared some hilarious tweets that delve into the bizarre Thanksgiving traditions performed by families each year. If you thought your mother was strange, take comfort in knowing that she didn’t make you get up at 4 a.m. to dance with the raw turkey in order to tenderize it, as some were forced to do.

The holidays typically involve squabbling over food—amongst other things—so one family decided that the person who gets to eat the coveted turkey neck should have to “catch it like a bridal bouquet,” with one relative flinging the meat over their shoulder, while the rest clamber to snatch it. Finally, Fallon and Steve Higgins couldn’t help giggling at the concept of the “ham slap” game, where you slap an unsuspecting family member with a piece of ham and yell, “Ham slap!”

Another common point of holiday friction is the cleanup, which is why one family developed a game to solve the issue. Each person gets a pumpkin pie and must stick their entire face into it at grandma’s cue, last one to do so is required to clear the table. The most heartwarming of the tweets was right out of a Hallmark Movie: a mystery man arrived at a family’s house unannounced, because he typed the wrong address into his GPS, but the family liked him so much they’ve invited him back every year.

Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without football, so Fallon brought on former New York Giants player and Hamptons visitor Michael Strahan as a guest. In the November 20 episode, Strahan poked fun at The Tonight Show house band The Roots, because for years members have waited for him in the hall to say, “Your Giants suck; my Eagles are so good.” However, this season the door to their room was mysteriously closed. Fallon asked Strahan what happened to the Eagles and he responded, “They landed.” The mocking continued until Questlove threw his drumstick at him.

In another video from the episode, Kelly Ripa‘s former co-host offered a seemingly friendly game of catch with the host, having the naive Fallon “go long” right into the hallway, before subsequently locking him out and taking over the show. Incidentally, it may be renamed, “The Tonight Show Starring Michael Strahan.”