Dinner's ready, and hubby wants to read the paper, shave and primp before settling down to the answer of "soup's on". Then, they get the grocery list wrong, all obviously to remind the little wifey who wears the pants in the family. I think as kids, even the little boys in the family saw mom as perfect and dad either as a big oaf or money grubbing tight wad or the inept Mr. Fix It. That's why the father of the bride is usually ignored until the passing of the bill, not consulted in living room color schemes and is often unknown by their children's closest friends. It's an exaggeration of course, but Benchley manages to pull it off without coming off as prejudice to his own sex.