Question: When Ralph promises he'll fix Norton's pipes tomorrow morning, Norton says, "This is the last night I take a bath in Fred's Gasoline Station." Why wouldn't he have been taking his baths in his best friend Ralph's tub? He had already used their water to "Stretch the Soup." Why not to bathe?
Answer: Art Carney lived in Tuckahoe NY at this time and Fred's gasoline station really did exist. It was a plug for his friend at home.
Answer: Because going to the gas station for a bath is funnier. This is comedy, funnier trumps making sense.
It's still a mistake.
Answer: There's no answer. He was probably joking or exaggerating, and, unlike getting water for the soup, bathing in someone else's bathroom is an inconvenience, and it might make Norton self-conscious and it would annoy Ralph. Going to a gas station does sound like something Norton would do.
Norton self-conscious? No way.
Answer: It is because Fred's gasoline station was a real place that really existed in the town of Tuckahoe New York. This was where Norton, Art Carney, was living at the time. It was a plug for his friend.
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