Son In Law: A Forgotten Thanksgiving Classic

The turkey rarely gets its day. November 1st hits, and the whispers of Mariah Carey blow in with the cold. Not this year! This year, the turkey gets its due! As we fill up another plate of mashed potatoes, pull off another turkey leg, and pile high the mac n cheese, we’re hopping in the wayback machine and taking a look back on one of the forgotten, albeit iconic, Thanksgiving classics, Pauly Shore’s 1993 hit, ‘Son in Law.’

Come grind over here with us, Ow Ow, cause it’s time to spend Thanksgiving with the Weaz.

Home for the Holidays

‘Son-in-Law’ is a true fish out of water story that lends itself to any holiday setting. Coming from a small town and growing up on a farm, Becca leaves the quaint backwoods town she calls home for the lights of the big city to attend college. Enter Crawl. The RA in her college dorm. An extrovert slang machine that is the farthest from what Becca has ever known and certainly not the boyfriend she left back home. The two strike up a friendship, culminating in a trip home to Becca’s salt-of-the-earth rancher family. Hilarity ensues as Crawl adjusts to life on the farm and the Warners adjust to him.

Comedy, drama, family, ‘Son in Law’ has everything that makes a holiday movie a holiday movie. The story arc of growth is the calling card of any Christmas movie you might turn on while trimming the Christmas Tree, but with turkey, not goose, at the table. When we gather with our families on holidays, we want to have a sense of joy, bonding, and togetherness. ‘Son-in-law’ has all of that and more. Most importantly, it’s relatable. We’ve all brought someone home for a holiday, not sure of how our families would react. In many of those cases, hilarity ensued as well. It’s a truly timeless tale that ‘Son in Law’ packages around the kick off of the holiday season.

A Timeless Classic

To this day, Pauly Shore still has people who yell, “ow ow, hey it’s the weasel! how’s it going buddddyy?” at him in his daily life. The movie came out over 30 years ago. While that may be more due to the enduring charm of Pauly Shore than it is this particular film, ‘Son in Law’ has definitely been rewarded by that legacy as well. Shore’s counter culture oddball portrayal of Crawl, and ALL of his characters, honestly, has made him the poster boy for “meet my friend from college.” While Shore’s star may have dimmed over the last 3 decades and the weasel, in his own words, looks like “Billy Crystal,” his work on ‘Son in Law’ continues to live on in homes around Thanksgiving time. A timeless classic for a holiday that is far too often overlooked for a bearded man in a red suit.

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As you begin to clean up after a splendid meal of green beans, turkey, mac n’ cheese, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and more, when you’re looking for a film to bring your family together, ‘Son in Law,’ a forgotten icon of the holiday film world, is a more than perfect pick. Don’t tax the turkey’s gig too hard, cruster. The bird gets its day too.

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