Humor & Life Quote by W. C. Fields

Fields builds the joke like a vaudeville trapdoor: you step onto what sounds like sensible frontier wisdom and suddenly drop into pure mischief. A “bottle of stimulant” is already a winking euphemism for booze, dressed up as medicine. It’s the kind of polite lie drinkers tell themselves and everyone else: I’m not indulging, I’m preparing. Then the snake arrives as an excuse so old it might as well be biblical - fear demands fortification. But Fields doesn’t stop at rationalization; he rigs the situation by admitting he keeps the snake “handy,” too. The threat is staged, manufactured, ready to be summoned on demand. He’s not coping with a crisis. He’s curating one.

That’s the subtext that makes Fields feel modern: self-deception elevated to an art form, vice reframed as preparedness, the world reduced to props that justify your appetites. It’s also a small masterclass in comic timing. The first clause invites agreement; the second clause detonates it. The laugh comes from the speed of the reversal and the casualness of the confession, as if this is perfectly ordinary household management.

Context matters. Fields’ screen persona - the dignified, put-upon grump with a con man’s reflexes - thrived during an era when public morality was loud and private drinking was ubiquitous (and recently policed by Prohibition). The line smuggles a critique through charm: people don’t just make excuses; they keep them “handy,” ready to deploy, and call it prudence.