"Holiday For Drumsticks" is a 1949 Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Daffy Duck and directed by Arthur Davis.
In preparation for Thanksgiving, a hillbilly couple get a turkey and proceed to have him fattened up. Daffy, who lives on their farm, is incensed that a new bird is getting more food than him and warns the turkey, Thomas, about his fate of becoming a meal and advises him to reduce. As Tom burns off weight, Daffy pigs out on all the extra food himself. Sure enough, come Thanksgiving Day, Tom is too scrawny to be eaten but now Daffy is fat and heavy. Unfortunately, Daffy's bragging about him being fat and tender, along with a poor choice of words, makes him realize there's no written law that it has to be a turkey eaten on Thanksgiving...
This cartoon provides examples of:
- Acrofatic: Despite having gotten so fat, Daffy still manages to move around fairly quickly. It’s just not fast enough to outrun the hungry farmer.
- The Alleged Car: At the beginning of the cartoon, Pa's old car is so rickety that it barely makes it up the hill, and then when it reaches the house, it completely falls apart.
- Big Eater: Daffy tears into the food left for the turkey with gusto, enough to make him heavy and fat within a few weeks.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The cartoon ends with Daffy and Ma caught in a cycle: every time she tries to light the stove, he blows out the match. Based on the pile of used matches surrounding Ma, it goes on for some time.
- Cuckoo Clock Gag: At two o'clock on Thanksgiving Day, a cuckoo comes out of the hillbillies' clock. Instead of cuckooing, though, it uses a triangle as a dinner bell.
- Cut a Slice, Take the Rest: During his Gluttony Montage, Daffy cuts into a cherry pie before promptly eating the bigger part in one gulp.
- Cutting the Knot: Daffy brags about how fat and tender he is after gaining so much weight, and tells the farmer it’s too bad he can’t eat duck on Thanksgiving since Tom has become super skinny. The farmer decides to solve the problem by simply enjoying the fat, tender duck he owns for dinner instead, to Daffy’s horror.
- False Friend: Daffy pretends to come to Tom's aid by telling that the hillbillies want to fatten him up for Thanksgiving dinner, but it was mainly to get all the extra food Tom was receiving all to himself.
- Fat and Proud: Daffy is very pleased with his new, heavier figure after unwittingly fattening himself up over the last several weeks. He brags to the farmer about how fat and tender he is, proudly showing off his larger wings and thighs and patting his belly. It works too well as the farmer realizes what a good meal he’d make.
- Fattening the Victim: Daffy recognizes that Tom is being left all the food so he can get fat and be a proper Thanksgiving meal. He ends up taking Tom’s place since he eats it instead.
- Feuding Families: Ma and Pa are shown to have a feud with their neighbors, being nonplussed as they casually dodge bullets (and even use them) before Pa eventually returns fire.
- Gluttony Montage: The montage until Thanksgiving shows Daffy greedily feasting on the food that was meant to fatten Tom up. It ends with Daffy seemingly having finished all the food by himself and massaging his now huge stomach in delight.
- Gone Horribly Right: Daffy finally got to feast like a king, but it came at the cost of becoming as fat as a king and first in line to be eaten.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Daffy isn’t lying when he points out to Tom that he’s in line to be fattened up and eaten. Tom nearly fell for it too, meaning Daffy ultimately did him a favor.
- Kill Tally: Pa has one on the wall for how many of his neighbors he's shot. He's up to 74.
- Lean and Mean: At the end of the short, Tom has become extremely, unhealthily skinny, and he has no mercy for Daffy, and helps set him up to get eaten.
- Mundane Utility: Ma and Pa take advantage of the bullets being shot at them to pour coffee from the coffee pot and light a smoking match respectively.
- Sapient Eat Sapient: The farmer is able to perfectly understand and communicate with Daffy and Tom, and has no issue trying to eat them regardless.
- Temporary Bulk Change:
- After his weight loss regimen, Tom is thin as a rail, while Daffy has a big Balloon Belly from eating all the food meant for Tom.
- Daffy actually tries to get another one in during the climax as he realizes the farmers will now eat him instead now that he’s fat, and resolves to try to lose his excess weight immediately. It doesn’t work, as Daffy has grown too fat to efficiently exercise and can’t outrun the farmer.
- Tempting Fate: After bragging to Pa about how tender he is compared to Tom, Daffy states, "It's a shame you can't eat duck on Thanksgiving". Pa, who has been emotionless the whole cartoon, then flashes a Slasher Smile (complete with a creepy gleam in his eyes).Daffy: [Loud Gulp] Or can ya?
- Thanksgiving Episode: Daffy takes the place of a turkey meant for a hillbilly couple's Thanksgiving dinner.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Subverted. Daffy worked Tom like a workhorse to get him scrawny, but it was mostly so he could gorge himself on Tom’s food. When Daffy ends up fat and in danger, Tom doesn’t try to help him and even sets him up to get eaten himself.
