# Is Alice's Restaurant a tradition for your Thanksgiving? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [November 24, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983 "2011-11-24T17:06:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/41 "2011-11-25T02:58:47Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > What do you need, twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is? She needs a seeing eye dog. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/42 "2011-11-25T03:07:12Z")
Never heard of it until this thread. I have now listened to one third of it and hope I never come across it again. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/43 "2011-11-25T03:34:56Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > Never heard of it until this thread. I have now listened to one third of it and hope I never come across it again. Do you judge a book by its cover, too? ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/44 "2011-11-25T03:37:42Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Do you judge a book by its cover, too? I hardly think suffering through a full third of the song (i.e. over 7 minutes) is equivalent to just looking at a book’s cover. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/45 "2011-11-25T03:44:42Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > I hardly think suffering through a full third of the song (i.e. over 7 minutes) is equivalent to just looking at a book’s cover. Then you need to sit on the Group W bench alongside the mother stabbers and the father rapers. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/46 "2011-11-25T03:48:25Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > I hardly think suffering through a full third of the song (i.e. over 7 minutes) is equivalent to just looking at a book’s cover. There’s no point in arguing with you, but I will point out that 7 minutes just scratches the surface of the song. You didn’t even get to where he goes to the induction center and gets told he’s not moral enough to kill people and burn villages for being a litterbug. The best part about this song? It’s true. Stylized, perhaps, but it actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/47 "2011-11-25T03:56:12Z")
I know the song and like it just fine, but no it’s not a _tradition_ ( i.e. I don’t specifically seek it out on Thanksgiving ). ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/48 "2011-11-25T04:30:11Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > What do you need, twenty-seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is? 😃 > > I was listening to it on my way to the dump. Who expects a dump to be closed on Thanksgiving? My local dump is open from 10 AM-2PM. And they’re definitely closed on Holidays. I realize you’re joking - but at least in the movie the VW Microbus dumps stuff like old car parts and sofas - not just uneatable Feast Foodstuffs. > [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > The best part about this song? It’s true. Stylized, perhaps, but it actually happened. And again, movie-wise, William Obenheim plays himself as Officer Obie. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/49 "2011-11-25T04:56:50Z")
> [@Corbomite](#): > > And again, movie-wise, William Obenheim plays himself as Officer Obie. He explained to Newsweek Magazine that making himself look like a fool was preferable to letting someone else make him look like a fool. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/50 "2011-11-25T05:17:41Z")
> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#): > > I merged the two Alice’s Restaurant threads. Did you decide that one big thread is better than two little ones? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/51 "2011-11-25T06:11:32Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > There’s no point in arguing with you, but I will point out that 7 minutes just scratches the surface of the song. You didn’t even get to where he goes to the induction center and gets told he’s not moral enough to kill people and burn villages for being a litterbug. > > The best part about this song? It’s true. Stylized, perhaps, but it actually happened. See, I went through the whole song, and I just didn’t find it funny. I smiled once when the guys came back over to sit by him when he mentioned “disorderly conduct,” but that’s it. But mostly it just bugged me because it was set up like a story, and we didn’t find out what happened (Did he get drafted or not?), nor what it actually had to do with Alice’s Restaurant, seeing as he got the garbage out of Alice’s house. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/52 "2011-11-25T06:16:27Z")
I never thought of it for Thanksgiving-- too many family members would get their panties in a twist. Now-a-days those of us with a sense of humor out-number those who don’t, so this is going to be a tradition! Was it the Muppet Movie where the band lived in a church? Something about it makes me think of Alice’s Restaurant. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/53 "2011-11-25T06:57:08Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > But mostly it just bugged me because it was set up like a story, and we didn’t find out what happened (Did he get drafted or not?), nor what it actually had to do with Alice’s Restaurant, seeing as he got the garbage out of Alice’s house. 1. He was not drafted. They pointedly told him in the song “We don’t like your kind” and sat him on the Group W bench where all the criminals were. 2. The joke is that his arrest for littering, a particularly minor offense, kept him from being drafted because it was seen as a morals violation, during a war where the burning of villages and killing of civilians was commonplace. The story leading up to his reporting for the draft, when contrasted with what the Army was doing in Vietnam, was intended to be incredibly ironic. I’m OK with the fact that you didn’t like it. I enjoy it, but I have my own tastes and would not impose them upon anybody else. But if you did in fact listen to it the whole way through I cannot fathom how you didn’t discern these facts for yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/54 "2011-11-25T07:45:10Z")
Now, can anyone find me an Internet link to the _alternate_ version, “The Multi-Colored Rainbow Roach”? ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/55 "2011-11-25T12:10:59Z")
I watched the movie with the Arlo commentary. Does that count ? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/56 "2011-11-25T13:05:39Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > Did you decide that one big thread is better than two little ones? And rather than bring that one _up,_ she decided to send this one _down._ ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/57 "2011-11-25T14:48:44Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > My clock radio went off this morning just as Obie was slippin’ on the handcuffs. Please leave your sex life out of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/58 "2011-11-25T15:53:43Z")
WCKG in Chicago plays this every Thanksgiving at 10:00 am (and again in the afternoon, I think), so I’ve been listening to it every year for the past 10 years. My wife and I also watched it on TV last winter, but kind of found it difficult to get into. It was fairly amusing, though. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/59 "2011-11-25T15:54:07Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > And rather than bring that one _up,_ she decided to send this one _down._ We found her name on another thread at the bottom of a half a ton of other threads. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983/60 "2011-11-26T01:23:10Z")
> [@MareIt](#): > > ~You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant ~~~~ Excepting Alice. We don’t do Thanksgiving in Australia but I love the song. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-alices-restaurant-a-tradition-for-your-thanksgiving/603983.md?page=4)