Taking it literally
When you make the effort to give simple instructions, you tend to assume a certain base level of intelligence and common sense on behalf of the person you’re talking to. I think that, when talking to husbands like those in this article, assumptions should be thrown out of the window.
The wife obviously asked just to “peel half of the potatoes”, this was what the guy considered a perfectly sensible thing to do. When has he ever been served potatoes that looked like this? I’m at a loss. Well, he’s not technically wrong, but he did it in such an odd way that we can’t help but chuckle at his thought process.