Turkeys voting for Christmas
Turkeys voting for Christmas is an English idiom used as a metaphor for a situation in which a choice made is clearly against one's self-interest. In the United Kingdom, turkeys are commonly eaten as part of the English Christmas dinner.[1]
History
The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations writes that a commentator in the Independent Magazine traced the origin of the phrase to British Liberal Party politician David Penhaligon,[2] who is quoted as saying: "Us voting for the Pact is like a turkey voting for Christmas" in reference to the 1977 Lib–Lab pact which he opposed.[3]
The phrase was soon borrowed by other politicians and public figures.[2] In 1979, Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan was faced with a vote of no confidence called by Scottish National Party, who were upset with Labour's treatment of the recent Scottish devolution referendum. In the resulting vote the Scottish nationalists sided with the Conservative opposition against the Labour government, despite the fact that the Conservatives opposed devolution. During his speech, Callaghan stated that "If they win, there will be a general election. I am told that the current joke going around the House is that it is the first time in recorded history that turkeys have been known to vote for an early Christmas." The Scottish National Party ultimately lost most of its representation in the resulting election. In 2000, British MP Teresa Gorman, who opposed the Maastricht Treaty, stated; "If the House of Commons voted for Maastricht it would be like 651 turkeys voting for Christmas."[4]
Similar idioms
In the United States, the phrases "turkeys voting for Thanksgiving", the holiday when turkey is more commonly served there, and "Chickens for Colonel Sanders", referring to the founder of the fast food restaurant KFC, are often used. In Canada, the story of Mouseland has mice voting for cats. A similar German idiom is "Only the most stupid calves would vote for their butchers" ("Nur die dümmsten Kälber wählen ihre Metzger selber"). Bertold Brecht alluded to it in his Kälbermarsch ("March of the calves", 1933), a parody of the Nazi anthem "Horst Wessel Song", which was included in his play Schweik in the Second World War (1943). A similar photomontage of John Heartfield shows Hitler as a butcher with a chicken and the caption "Don't panic! He's a vegetarian."[5]
In 2015, Twitter user Adrian Bott posted the viral tweet, "'I never thought leopards would eat my face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party". The expression has since become idiomatic of people who face adverse consequences of authoritarian, cruel or unjust policies that they supported.[6][7] A popular 2016 New Yorker cartoon by Paul Noth portrays a sheep viewing a billboard of a wolf political candidate whose campaign slogan is "I am going to eat you", and approvingly remarking "He tells it like it is."[8]
Chickens for Colonel Sanders
The phrase "Chickens for Colonel Sanders" (or "Chickens defending KFC") has been used by various politicians in different scenarios, such as in 1978 by Canadian politician Steven W. Langdon, NDP candidate for the Ottawa Centre federal electoral district, when making the comparison with the district voting for the Progressive Conservative Party,[9] and in 2016 by U.S. lawmaker and representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn) using the phrase in comparison to Muslims voting for Donald Trump.[10] Commentator Thomas Frank also cited an example of its use as a rhetorical tool of the grassroots conservative movement in the United States in the early 21st century.[11]
During the Gaza war, the phrase "Chickens for KFC" has been used by some sources as an analogy for the position of LGBT people supporting the state of Palestine, due to widespread stigmatization of LGBT people in the State of Palestine in addition to the criminalization of male same-sex sexual activity in the Gaza Strip.[12][13] Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has used the phrase to parody the slogan "Gays for Gaza", including on his 2024 address to U.S. Congress[14] and on a July 2025 edition of Nelk's Full Send Podcast.[15][16][17]
See also
References
- ↑ John Harland (1858). The house and farm accounts of the Shuttleworths of Gawthorpe Hall in the county of Lancaster at Smithils and Gawthorpe: from September 1582 to October 1621. p.1059. Chetham society,
- 1 2 "Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations", by Ned Sherrin, Oxford University Press, Edition 4, 2008, ISBN 0-19-923716-6, "Introduction to the first edition"
- ↑ "The pact: the inside story of the Lib-Lab government, 1977-8", by Alistair Michie, Simon Hoggart, Quartet Books, 1978, p. 156
- ↑ "Billericay: The Dame who didn't give a damn...", Daily Gazette, 18 February 2000
- ↑ Max Nyffeler: Kälbermarsch Archived 23 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. In: nmz – neue musikzeitung. 9/2005
- ↑ Fred Clark, "The one-way ratchet of the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party", Patheos, 16 July 2021
- ↑ Goldberg, Michelle (4 January 2023). "Leopards Eat Kevin McCarthy's Face". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
- ↑ Noth, Paul (29 August 2016). "He tells it like it is". Daily Humor. The New Yorker.
- ↑ Mikkelson, Barbara (20 July 2008). "Chicken Votes for Colonel Sanders". Snopes. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ↑ Yilek, Caitlin (24 May 2016). "Muslim lawmaker: Muslims for Trump is like chickens for Colonel Sanders". The Hill. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ↑ Frank, Thomas (2004). What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York City: Metropolitan Books. p. 2. ISBN 9780805073393.
For you this picture of hard-times conservatism makes perfect sense, and it is the opposite phenomenon—working-class people who insist on voting for liberals—that strikes you as an indecipherable puzzlement. Maybe you see it the way the bumper sticker I spotted at a Kansas City gun show puts it: 'A working person that supports Democrats is like a chicken that supports Col. Sanders!'
- ↑ "Palestine". Human Dignity Trust. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
- ↑ Navabi, Armin (17 October 2023). "'Queers for Palestine' and the Death of Irony". Queer Majority. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ↑ Walker, Jackson (24 July 2024). "Netanyahu likens 'Gays for Gaza' to 'Chickens for KFC' in speech to Congress". WPMI. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
- ↑ Netanyahu, Benjamin (21 July 2025). The Benjamin Netanyahu Interview. Full Send Podcast. Interviewed by Forgeard, Kyle; Steinberg, Aaron. YouTube. Event occurs at 14:16. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
- ↑ Sadikman, Ruby (27 July 2025) [22 July 2025]. "Netanyahu says Iran put a bounty on his head on Nelk Boys podcast appearance". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
- ↑ Mahdawi, Arwa (24 July 2025). "As Gaza starves, Netanyahu jokes about McDonald's with 'manosphere' podcasters Nelk Boys". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 August 2026.