The dinner party scene of Chapter Seven gives an indication of what Jaws might have been like written as mild satire, as Benchley had originally intended. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it does have elements of a comedy of manners. Ellen's desperate attempts to impress her guests - the silverware, the tulip wine glasses, the fancy menu and French wine - are undermined by her husband's boorish behaviour. Brody is more comfortable with a blue collar supper of a bologna and cheese sandwich and a beer than gazpacho soup and butterfly lamb. He serves his wife's drink with his thumb in the glass, mispronounces the wine as he serves it (Mount Ratchet) and is genuinely bemused when Ellen (mis)uses the French word for corkscrew.
Brody feels threatened by the presence of Hooper in his house and from the start of the evening is a begrudging host. He is further enraged by Daisy Wicker's hippy philosophy and her pot and grass stories - as a late-blooming flower child, Daisy is appropriately named. His anger builds to an almost psychopathic fury. "That Wicker bitch was right about one thing, Brody thought as he slashed the meat: I sure as shit feel alienated right now." He takes refuge in the bottle and, using the alcoholic's tactic of taking two drinks for every one he serves his guests, gets drunk.
Some of these elements did find their way into the movie - Brody's lack of knowledge about wine ("You might want to let that breathe") and his slightly slurred speech - but they are played for laughs. In the film Brody gets endearingly tipsy, but in the book he is an ugly drunk, teetering on the edge of violence.
