Guillotine Days

At a guillotine in revolutionary France, an executioner briefs Marie Antoinette on the procedure and then asks her for a favor: he and his partner Benson have a wager on whether a severed head could recite the alphabet. She agrees to try, and the result leaves the two arguing over who owes whom. They keep doubling the stakes with each prisoner in line, betting next on whether an apologetic nobleman can burp his full name, and blaming the failure on a lack of carbonation. By the time a bewildered bread maker who only came to place a bet reaches the front of the line, they have a bottle of root beer ready.