American comedian Rita Rudner said of Thanksgiving:
 
“My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow.”
   
It’s not known when Rudner first said it, but the joke was included in Rudner’s Naked Beneath My Clothes: Tales of a Revealing Nature (1992) and a 1993 quotations book.
 
“Most turkeys taste better the day after, my mother’s tasted better the day before” is an associated Rudner joke about Thanksgiving cooking. “My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor” is a similar joke from American comedian Phyllis Diller (1917-2012).
       
 
Wikipedia: Rita Rudner
Rita Rudner (born September 17, 1953) is an American comedian, writer and actress. Beginning her career as a Broadway dancer, Rita Rudner noticed the lack of female comedians in New York City and turned her stage presence to stand-up comedy where she has flourished for over three decades. Her performance on a variety of HBO specials and numerous appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, helped establish Rudner as one of the premiere female comics to emerge from the comedy boom of the 1980s.
 
Google Books
Naked Beneath My Clothes:
Tales of a Revealing Nature
By Rita Rudner
New York, NY: Penguin Books
1993, ©1992
Pg. ?:
I loved my mother very much, but she was not a good cook. Most turkeys taste better the day after; my mother’s tasted better the day before. In our house Thanksgiving was a time for sorrow.
 
Google Books
The Fifth and Far Finer than the First Four 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Compiled by Robert Byrne
New York, NY: Fawcett Columbine
1993
Pg. ?:
219
My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow.
Rita Rudner
 
Google Books
Funny Ladies:
The Best Humor from America’s Funniest Women
By Bill Adler
Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing
2001
Pg. 84:
My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow. — Rita Rudner
 
Google Groups: alt.fifty-plus.friends
k is not here to help out Thankgiving quotes
Normandy
11/26/08
(...)
Rita Rudner
My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow.
 
Google Books
The Mammoth Book of Insults
Edited by Geoff Tibballs
London: Constable & Robinson Ltd
2011
Pg. ?:
My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow. – Rita Rudner
 
Google Groups: The Grif.net
11/24/15 Grif.Net - Thanksgiving Insights from Famous Americans
Dr. Bob
11/24/15
Thanksgiving dinner take eighteen hours to prepare. It is consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence. ~ Erma Bombeck
My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow. ~ Rita Rudner
 
Google Books
Forbes Book of Quotations:
10,000 Thoughts on the Business of Life
Edited by Ted Goodman
New York, NY: Hachette Books
2016
Pg. ?:
My mother is such a lousy cook that Thanksgiving at her house is a time of sorrow.
Rita Rudner