When my mother had to get dinner for 8 she’d just make enough for 16 and only serve half.

The line exemplifies Gracie Allen’s trademark “illogical logic,” in which a domestic scenario is narrated with a deadpan, internally inconsistent solution. The humor turns on a comic misunderstanding of arithmetic and household management: making “enough for 16” but serving “half” is presented as a practical strategy for feeding eight, while also implying waste, confusion, or a childlike approach to problem-solving. As with much of Allen’s persona, the joke gently satirizes conventional expectations of competence in everyday life, using exaggerated simplicity to produce a paradox that feels both innocent and slyly subversive.