A small tarnished crown-shaped metal ring rests on a dark marbled slab against a burgundy background.

Original artwork, not a still

Mark Twain

No man should [do that] unless he is the King of England — or has a tapeworm.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The line forbids an unnamed action except for a king or someone with a tapeworm. Those wildly different exceptions form the joke; the bracketed action remains unspecified.

Context reviewed

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