Tony Meets Alice's Family, Explained：got another thing coming

What's really going on

The comedy comes from a collision of worlds. Tony, a rich man's son, steps into a house where nobody obeys rules, and the first thing he hears is Grandpa refusing to pay taxes: "I don't owe the government a cent." The tax man threatens, "You'll go to jail if you don't pay," and Grandpa treats the whole thing as a game. Against this, Tony's good manners and Kolenkhov's theatrical rudeness — "The Monte Carlo Ballet? It stinks" — show how casually this family speaks its mind. Tony is not there to judge, though; he is there because he loves Alice, and the scene lets him see, in one evening, exactly what he would be marrying into.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Everybody laughs except the man shouting.
• Grandpa treats the law as something he can haggle over.
• A guest's arrival makes the family chaos feel worse.
• The scene is funny because nobody takes the threat seriously.

発音のポイント

• paid an income — Paid an income links across the words in fast speech.
• isn't worth a — Worth a links together and the t in isn't often drops.
• never have I — In the inversion have reduces to a weak form.