Funny Friday: Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Mishaps

In my family, like many others, watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning is a beloved tradition. Growing up, my brothers and I loved watching our favorite characters float down the streets while our parents prepared our Thanksgiving feast. As a wide-eyed child, I never gave a second thought to the millions of things that could go wrong during the parade – but the list is long, and there have been several hilarious, terrifying tragedies over the 89 years of Thanksgiving Day parades.

Naturally, New York enforces guidelines and limitations to ensure safety for the balloons, parade walkers and the spectators, but things don’t always go according to plan. Some years, officials are able to prevent injury and threats to safety (but some glaring tragedies have plagued the Thanksgiving Day tradition). For today’s Funny Friday, we’ll look at two hilarious Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade mishaps.

The NYPD killed Barney, 1997

The strong winds this Thanksgiving made everyone’s favorite dinosaur hard to control. The police were called in to deflate the balloon in order to prevent potential safety issues. Thankfully, Barney did not injure any of the spectators, and the deflation process was relatively controlled by his handlers. However, you can hear the children start screaming at 4:30 when Barney’s head deflates.

M&M’s crashed (and the media covered it up), 2005

The M&M balloons crashed into a lamp post and injured two women – news that never made it to the televised broadcast, where footage of the 2004 parade was played instead. Understandably trying to keep the crash and injuries under wraps, reporters read a script that was played over the old footage. Luckily, Jon Stewart flexed is investigative reporting skills (which is clearly better than his pizza tasting skills), and exposed NBC’s cover-up on The Daily Show.

Here’s to hoping this year’s parade goes off without a hitch, whether we’re watching from the comfort of our family rooms or watching live at the event. What are you thankful for this year?

Cover Photo Source: Andrew McDonough / Shutterstock.com

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://wpmaster.sjadv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Our-Space-Mary-Bio-Pic.png[/author_image] [author_info]Mary is an Assistant Account Executive at SJG. She earned her BA in Communication from the University of Evansville in 2013. In her spare time, when she’s not engulfing novels in a coffee shop, Mary feels most at home celebrating life and love with her family and friends, and visiting the streets of Paris in her dreams. [/author_info] [/author]