The scene is set up to portray Charlie as being in a retirement home. It's dinner time, and before he can ask for anyone to pass the meat, someone calls out 37, and the room bursts into laughter. Moments later, 57 is called out, and more laughter results. Charlie asks the guy next to him what is going on. He is told that everyone knows each others’ jokes so well that they have numbered the jokes, so to save time, they just call out the numbers.
After a while, Charlie decides to give it a trial and call 52, but no one laughs; there is complete silence.
Charlie asks his friend what is wrong. His friend tells him not to worry and that there isn't anything wrong. It’s just that some people can tell jokes and some people can't.