Thanksgiving Day is one of the most important holidays in the United States of America. For billions of Americans, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade is an integral part of holiday festivities, along with roast turkey, gatherings with relatives, and games of touch football on the front lawn. This year, however, the hundreds of millions of attendees and further billions of viewers on television witnessed a hitherto unknown spectacle, when the parade became the scene of a prolonged and violent battle between a grizzly-bear-sized snowy owl and a buffalo-sized turkey.
A special Thanksgiving surprise: Turkor, the giant wild turkey
The turkey, known as Turkor, was first seen wandering along the parade route, but it is not known whether he intended to join the parade, or if his presence was accidental and coincidental. Witnesses reported first thinking the giant turkey was a "very realistic float" or a "robot", or "the best [expletive] Thanksgiving costume I've ever seen". However, it soon became apparent by the bird's behavior that it was in fact a real turkey. The beast, Turkor, did not attempt to eat any humans. He did uproot several small trees, however, and attempted to eat the tires of a truck pulling one of the floats, and killed between 3 and 1,945 people by accidentally trampling on them.
As Turkor's gobbles, clucks and other noises melded with the marching bands and pre-recorded pop songs, however, a new and ominous sound joined the festive cacophony: a menacing growl that witnesses described as sounding something like "Rrrrrrrrrrrr". The grizzly-bear-sized snowy owl that had been wreaking havoc on both sides of the Atlantic was seen flying down the parade route. He barely paused to demolish between two and 49 floats as he flew towards an unknown goal.
As the giant turkey was wandering down the street, gobbling merrily as he walked beside the balloon of the beloved comic strip character Snoopy, the menacing "Rrrrrrrr" was heard again, and the snowy owl burst onto the scene. First, he tore the Snoopy balloon to shreds, raining the scraps down onto the shocked crowd, and then he seized the turkey and flung him into a nearby building, smashing it. Turkor, however, was not significantly injured.
"First, I thought it was supposed to be part of a Harry Potter float, you know, like a super-realistic Harry Potter owl," one eyewitness recalled. "Then when the owl and turkey got together, I thought the theme must have been 'Harry Potter is using his messenger owl to send Thanksgiving greetings'. But when the owl killed the Snoopy float and started fighting with the turkey, I realized the whole thing was probably unplanned."
The two huge birds continued to move along the parade route. Turkor only rarely attempted to fly away, as each time he tried to escape the owl beat him down with his wings or talons. The turkey puffed out his plumage in an effort to seem more impressive, but the owl seemed unperturbed as he continued to swipe at Turkor, using his wings as weapons. One witness commented, "It was kind of like the owl was b***h-slapping the turkey."
It was not merchandise, but brutal action that they were bargaining for
Finally, the two gigantic birds stopped in front of Macy's, where they continued to do battle. The turkey made a last-ditch effort to defend himself, slashing furiously with his beak, but the owl sent him flying with a kick from his foot. He then leaped on Turkor and stabbed him several times with his talons, before flying off with his slain foe towards central park. Fortunately, the battle concluded in time to allow Santa to appear at the end the parade as scheduled.
Having dispatched his foe, the owl flew to Central Park and enjoyed what may be the largest turkey ever consumed on Thanksgiving. He then flew off for points unknown, sure to rain mayhem and destruction on the unwary another time.