Her husband spent so much of his free time at the bar that his wife finally told him how much it bothered her. She kept picturing him enjoying himself while she was at home, and she wanted to know what made an evening there so hard to give up. One night he took her along. The joke begins with that simple change of plans. For once, they would both spend the evening in the same place.
When they got to the bar, he asked what she wanted to drink. She had no particular order in mind, so she told him to get her whatever he was having. That seemed like a reasonable way to find out what he liked about the place. She could try his usual drink without making him explain why he ordered it, and he was perfectly happy to order two of the same thing.
He asked for two shots of Jack Daniel’s. When the drinks arrived, he knocked his back in one go. She watched him empty his glass and then took a much smaller sip from hers. Even that was more than enough. She spat it out almost immediately and told him it tasted awful. She couldn’t understand how he managed to drink it, especially when he had made getting the whole thing down look so easy.
He had his answer ready. She was always saying that he went to the bar to enjoy himself, he told her. After tasting the whiskey, did she still think he was having a good time every night?
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.