The one about the fellow who always footed the drinks bill? (8,4)
I believe the answer is:
standing joke
'the fellow who always footed the drinks bill?' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.
'the one' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is found within the answer.
'one' could be 'an' (an apple is one apple) and 'an' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'about' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for standing joke that I've seen before include "laugh" , "Constant source of amusement" , "Regular cause of amusement" , "Regular source of amusement or ridicule" .)