The Funniest Mistake Ever Called Into The Butterball Thanksgiving Hotline
Butterball's Thanksgiving hotline is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year, which we found somewhat surprising. We were sure they'd been around since back in the day when apron-clad, high-heeled, and pearl-wearing 1950s housewives offered tips on how to make every holiday picture-perfect.
Well, as the people who answer the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line told us, talking people through their holiday turkey disasters is not quite as easy as you might imagine. They are mostly there to offer tips on turkey preparation, although this year they are branching out into new territory and launching their Turkey Talk-Line Taste Kitchen on TikTok.
This video platform allows them to share new ways to cook your bird, recipes for side dishes, and how to really rock an apron (heels and pearls strictly optional). Back to the old phone-in hotline, though. Butterball staffers say they've heard it all, from the heartwarming to the hair-raising, and even, on occasion, to the inadvertently hilarious.
One man couldn't tell a chicken from a turkey
Coren Hayes, who stars in this soon-to-be-viral TikTok video showing how to make stuffing waffle sandwiches, shared her favorite Turkey Talk-Line memory with Mashed during a recent Zoom call. "Someone called [the hotline] very frantic, sounded very distressed, it was his first time cooking Thanksgiving," Hayes told us. "He must have been too frazzled in the grocery store and he picked up a whole chicken instead of a turkey." As Hayes managed not to crack up, the caller proceeded to ask, "How can I convince ... my guests that this is a turkey?"
Well, as Hayes explains, Butterball's hotline staffers often serve as holiday counselors of sorts, calming people down and telling them that their holidays are still going to turn out ok no matter what. The one thing Butterball's people aren't, though, is magicians. "I had to tell him no," she admitted. That said, she did reassure the man that his dinner would be great and offered him some chicken cooking tips. But, she added, "There is no way to turn a chicken into a turkey."