A phrase taken from a
popular joke. To say someone is "in the
barrel" or "taking a turn in the
barrel" means it's their turn to do an unpleasant task or to suffer an unpleasant experience. The joke is as follows:
A sailor on a Navy
ship had been out to sea for weeks, and was beginning to
go through sex withdrawals. Fed up with the lack of sex, he asked one of his shipmates what he did when the pressure was too much to take.
"
Well, there's a barrel with a hole in it near the
mop storage. When it gets to be too much for us, we use that."
So the sailor went over to the barrel and decided to give it a
go. Finding it was better than he'd expected, he began using it regularly, and his problems seemed to vanish.
After a couple of weeks, his commanding officer began to take notice, and said, "You seem to be a lot more relaxed. What's your secret?"
The sailor, embarrassed to give a
straight answer, simply said he'd been getting better rest.
"Well good, sailor. You're going to need it," replied the officer. "
Today's your turn in the barrel."