I have an idea that the phrase "weaker sex" was coined by some woman to disarm some man she was preparing to overwhelm.

Nash’s line is a comic reversal of a long-standing sexist cliché. By suggesting that a woman coined “the weaker sex” as a tactical phrase, he treats the label not as a biological truth but as rhetoric—something deployed to lower a man’s guard. The humor depends on the sudden shift from presumed female weakness to female strategic strength (“preparing to overwhelm”). Beneath the joke is a satirical point typical of Nash: social formulas and polite phrases often conceal power dynamics, and those who seem disadvantaged may be adept at navigating (and exploiting) the assumptions of those who claim superiority.