Obama Pardons Two Turkeys, Despite John Oliver's Pleas

Barack Obama presided over the yearly National Thanksgiving Turkey event Wednesday at the White House, sparing the lives of the two turkeys named Mac and Cheese. During the annual event, Obama said, "If you're a turkey and you're named after a side dish, your chances of surviving Thanksgiving are pretty low. So, these guys beat the odds."

According to the White House, the turkey traditions began in 1873 with President Ulysses Grant after a Rhode Island farmer brought one of his turkeys to the White House. The bird Obama pardoned Wednesday comes from Cooper Farm , located in Grant's home state of Ohio. George H.W. Bush was the first president to offer the turkeys an official pardon and used the ceremony as a bit of good press for the White House. According to National Journal , this year’s birds got four-star treatment upon arriving in Washington .

Obama has used the ceremony to make jokes about how much he wants to eat the turkey, including saying he would send the birds to their "terrible and delicious fate" in 2011. This year, Obama joked about the event, calling the ceremony "the most talked-about executive action this month ." He added that he's not a fan of the bird's appearance, saying "turkeys don't have the best-looking heads."

The annual tradition is one that TV host John Oliver says needs to go away.

Oliver, a Liverpool native whose wife is an Army veteran of the Iraq War , took the event to task on a video this week. Oliver's Last Week Tonight is on hiatus, but the show posted a holiday-themed video on its YouTube page Sunday.

Oliver lays out the absurdity of the annual pardoning event in the video, saying it's crazy to pardon one turkey while Americans -- including Obama and his family -- consume "an estimated 46 million birds."

Oliver steps up the rhetoric and calls for a different way to do the event.

If we're going to pardon one turkey, we should pardon them all. Or we should put them all on trial. Which would, admittedly, be a little difficult. Because getting a jury of their peers is nearly impossible.

Oliver then declares all turkeys of being guilty of having "delicious bird parts," sentenced them to "the prison of my mouth" and, finally, offered Obama a challenge.

If you want the world to respect you, just once show up at a White House turkey pardoning with a cleaver and administer the justice these birds so clearly deserve.

Watch Last Week Tonight 's video below.