It was Thanksgiving Day, 1937. The turkey had been destroyed. The gravy had congealed into a kind of salty pudding. The "meat sweats" were legally binding.

Walter Morrison and his girlfriend, Lucile, looked at each other across the table. They could have stayed inside and made polite conversation about the Great Depression. They could have asked an uncle about his "health problems."

Instead, they went into the backyard, looked at a popcorn tin, and had a vision.

A vision that said: "I bet I can throw this sharp metal lid at your face."

So, they did what any "serious," well-adjusted adult would do…

They turned a piece of garbage into a pre-OSHA weapon and started chucking it back and forth.

If you had walked past their yard that day, you wouldn't have whispered, "Ah, behold the captains of industry." You would have whispered, "Those two maniacs are going to decapitate a squirrel."

But! That "dumb" game of catch eventually became the Frisbee, a toy that has sold 300 million units and is the primary reason dogs tolerate us.

This Thanksgiving, I have a challenge for you.

Grab the one cousin you actually like and go rogue. Invent a game that involves cranberry sauce mechanics. Choreograph a "Turkey Dance" that confuses the cat. Start a tradition that makes absolutely no sense to anyone but you.

Because the best ideas and the only memories worth keeping don't come from being serious. They come from being stupid, together.

AND LOOK, I HAVE PROOF.

I’m not just telling you to "get weird" to annoy your relatives (though that is a bonus). I’m telling you because Science says if you can’t be ridiculous with your people, you are DOOMED.

In this week’s podcast episode of Dumbify, I make the case that dropping the cool act and getting silly with your people is the absolute smartest thing you can do this weekend.

We are connecting the dots between:

I also dug up a dusty 18th-century word for this feeling that hits way harder than "team building."

So, before you have to sit next to Uncle "Greg" (sorry, Greg) and endure his unprompted lecture on the economy and "the races," SMASH THAT PLAY BUTTON.

Learn why getting silly together isn't just fun, it's good medicine, good science, and the only way to survive the weekend.

LISTEN HERE:

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