The Woods

Behind the yuk-yuk dad jokes of the now-annual presidential turkey pardon is a very strange, sometimes dark and often misunderstood history, even by presidents.

On Monday, President Biden again "pardoned" two turkeys — named Chocolate and Chip — though they did nothing wrong. They are coming from a grower in North Carolina, staying in a hotel room and even have social media accounts.

But why do they do it, you ask? Good question. It's one your author has been asking for 13 years now.

We got some answers for you, but the bottom line is this event is basically the biggest public-relations stunt of the year for the turkey lobby, it has a head-slapping reason for being coined a "pardon" and the birds were never meant to be spared, they were meant to be eaten.