One of the best things about marriage is that it gets young people to bed at a decent hour.

The line treats marriage less as romance than as a social institution that disciplines youthful habits. Its humor depends on a mild reversal: instead of praising companionship or love, it praises marriage for enforcing routine—specifically, an earlier bedtime—implying that courtship and single life encourage late nights, restlessness, or aimlessness. The joke also gestures toward older cultural expectations that marriage “settles” people, channeling energy into domestic regularity and responsibility. Read more broadly, it reflects a pragmatic, slightly sardonic view of matrimony as a stabilizing force, and it hints at generational attitudes that equate maturity with order, sleep, and predictable schedules.