She Went to the Bar With Her Husband and Ordered the Same Drink

The exchange works because his wife asks for exactly the drink he would have ordered anyway. If he had picked something just to shock her, she could have blamed him for choosing it. Instead, she gets to taste the thing he drinks willingly. She sees him finish it, tries it for herself, and gives him the opening he needs as soon as she tells him how bad it is.

There is also a funny difference between the question she brings to the bar and the one he answers. She wants to know why he spends so much time there. By the end, the two of them are talking about whether a shot of whiskey is pleasant to swallow. He takes her verdict on the drink and treats it as if it settles the whole argument. The quicker he makes that leap, the less time she has to point out what he has done.

It is easy to imagine the scene stopping right there, with one empty glass and one drink still on the bar. The published joke leaves the couple at that moment. The husband has managed to get the last word for the evening, or at least for as long as it takes his wife to get the taste out of her mouth. She went along to see what she had been missing, and one sip was all she needed to decide that he could keep his usual order to himself.

Adapted from Cheers dear in Coast Lines.