Marriage is nature’s way of keeping us from fighting with strangers.

King’s joke recasts marriage as a social safety valve: instead of directing everyday irritations outward toward “strangers,” we concentrate them within the most intimate relationship. The humor depends on an inversion of romantic ideals—marriage is not portrayed as harmony but as a sanctioned arena for conflict. It also hints at a broader social observation: close domestic life can absorb stress, resentment, and competitiveness that might otherwise spill into public life. The line’s punch comes from its cynical economy, suggesting that the institution’s “natural” function is less about love than about managing aggression and friction.