Summary
Overview
Armchair Expert presents a Thanksgiving disasters episode featuring four memorable stories from listeners across North America. From explosive propane heater incidents to mass norovirus outbreaks, these tales showcase holiday gatherings gone hilariously and terrifyingly wrong. The episodes highlight the chaos that ensues when large families, alcohol, and ambitious hosting plans collide during the holiday season.
The Uncle's Thanksgiving Puke-Fest
Jenna from Naperville shares a story from 20 years ago when her aunt hosted her first Thanksgiving in her new house with white carpet everywhere. Her alcoholic uncle consumed over a fifth of Jack Daniels mixed with Diet Coke over five hours. When 35 family members finally sat down to eat, he vomited approximately three liters across the dining table. The vomit caused a chain reaction with two young cousins also getting sick, leading to complete chaos. All the Thanksgiving food was thrown away and the carpets had to be immediately shampooed.
- Aunt Sally hosting first Thanksgiving in new house with white carpet everywhere
- Uncle consumed between one and two 2-liter bottles of Jack and Diet Coke
- Uncle vomited approximately three liters all over the Thanksgiving dinner table
- Two young cousins also vomited in chain reaction, creating total chaos
- All furniture cleared, all food thrown away, carpets shampooed immediately
- Uncle took 10 more years after this incident to get sober
" in slow motion, I see him just start to go "
The Propane Heater Explosion
Devon from Ontario describes her family's unique 52-year tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving by camping with 80 family members in the remote woods near Chalk River. After a day of heavy drinking, she disappeared, causing a search party. Later that night, her father attempted to light a propane heater but turned on the gas before having the lighter ready, filling the tent with propane. The resulting explosion was so massive it created a hole in the tent ceiling, destroyed air mattresses, and singed her father's facial hair and chest hair off. The family has experienced numerous other injuries over the years including chainsaw accidents and bear spray incidents.
- 80 family members camp in remote woods with army tents, full propane ovens, and generators for annual Thanksgiving tradition since 1972
- After heavy drinking, Devon disappeared causing search party that looked under bridges and in outhouses
- Father turned on propane gas before lighting striker, filling tent completely with gas
- Massive explosion created hole in tent ceiling, woke everyone in adjacent tents, felt like daytime
- Explosion destroyed air mattresses, sleeping bags, and singed father's facial hair and chest hair off
- Family has history of injuries including Uncle falling neck-first onto chainsaw this past year
" the only way I can really describe it is that the birth of a new star happened localized entirely within our tiny tent "
" I remember looking up at the beautiful night sky through the brand new hole in our ceiling as I slowly deflated back down to the cold, hard earth "
" this past year, my Uncle Brian tripped and fell neck first onto a chainsaw "
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