--- title: President Obama: Read the Transcript From the Turkey Pardon description: Read the transcript of President Barack Obama's turkey-themed puns and jokes from his final Thanksgiving pardon ceremony on Wednesday canonical: https://time.com/4581815/president-obama-turkey-puns-thanksgiving-pardon/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-23T21:47:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:59:12.820Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read President Obama's Final 'Dad Jokes About Turkeys' at Thanksgiving Pardon og:description: "That's worth gobbling about" og:url: https://time.com/4581815/president-obama-turkey-puns-thanksgiving-pardon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read President Obama's Final 'Dad Jokes About Turkeys' at Thanksgiving Pardon twitter:description: "That's worth gobbling about" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Read President Obama's Final 'Dad Jokes About Turkeys' From the Thanksgiving Pardon  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 23, 2016 9:47 PM UTC  President Barack Obama (R) pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey, 'Tot,' with his nephews Aaron and Austin Robinson in a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 23, 2016 in Washington, D.C. President Barack Obama (R) pardons the National Thanksgiving Turkey, 'Tot,' with his nephews Aaron and Austin Robinson in a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House on Nov. 23, 2016 in Washington, D.C.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Nov 23, 2016 9:47 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Wednesday [pardoned turkeys Tater and Tot](http://time.com/4581781/president-obama-thanksgiving-turkey-pardon/), delivering a series of fowl-themed jokes during his final [presidential pardon ceremony](http://time.com/4575217/presidential-turkey-pardon/). “For the past seven years, I’ve [established another tradition](http://time.com/4127536/live-president-obama-pardons-a-turkey/), embarrassing my daughters with a corny-copia of dad jokes about turkeys,” said Obama, who brought his two nephews with him this year. Even without Sasha and Malia, who “just couldn’t take my jokes anymore,” Obama kept up the tradition of Thanksgiving puns. “Look, I know there’s some bad ones in here, but this is the last time I’m doing this, so we’re not leaving any room for leftovers,” he said. Read his full remarks here: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4581815/president-obama-turkey-puns-thanksgiving-pardon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4581815/president-obama-turkey-puns-thanksgiving-pardon/"},"headline":"Read President Obama's Final 'Dad Jokes About Turkeys' From the Thanksgiving Pardon","datePublished":"2016-11-23T21:47:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:59:12.820Z","description":"\"This is the last time I'm doing this, so we're not leaving any room for leftovers\"","url":"https://time.com/4581815/president-obama-turkey-puns-thanksgiving-pardon/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","transcript","transcripts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e0f14b61cf4a043/6988afa8cd1bba0ea970335f/barack-obama-turkey-pardon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey","caption":"President Obama Pardons National Thanksgiving Turkey","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4581815/president-obama-turkey-puns-thanksgiving-pardon/","name":"Read President Obama's Final 'Dad Jokes About Turkeys' From the Thanksgiving Pardon"}}]}] ```