Marriage is a mistake every man should make.

Cast as a wry epigram, the line treats marriage as a “mistake” while simultaneously recommending it, creating a comic tension between cynicism and endorsement. The humor depends on the idea that marriage can be difficult, disillusioning, or constraining—yet also a formative experience that matures a person through responsibility, compromise, and intimacy. By framing it as something “every man should make,” the quote also reflects a mid‑20th‑century, male-centered social assumption that marriage is a near-universal rite of passage. Its enduring appeal lies in its ambivalence: it acknowledges the risks and frustrations of marriage while implying that the benefits (or lessons) outweigh the costs.