My father wore the pants in the family–at least, after the court order.

This is a one-line joke built on the idiom “to wear the pants,” meaning to be the dominant decision-maker in a household. The first clause sets up a conventional claim of paternal authority; the dash then flips the meaning by introducing a “court order,” implying divorce, custody arrangements, or legal restrictions that reduce the father’s autonomy. The humor comes from deflating patriarchal bravado with bureaucratic reality, suggesting that family power dynamics are often less about tradition than about law, negotiation, and consequences. It also plays on the literal image of “pants” as something one might be compelled to wear or relinquish under legal pressure.