I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.
Johnny CarsonRead
Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together without arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place.
Interpretation
This quote humorously suggests that New Yorkers are so accustomed to arguing that a peaceful cab ride signals something unusual has occurred.
Johnny Carson's quote highlights the stereotypical nature of New Yorkers as people who are often outspoken and argumentative. It uses humor to indicate that if four New Yorkers can share a cab without any dispute, it is likely due to an extraordinary circumstance, such as a bank robbery, which implies that arguments are the norm in their culture.
In practice
In a comedy show highlighting the quirks of city life.
I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself.
I couldn't care less what anybody says about me. I live my life, especially my personal life, strictly for myself... Whatever you do, you're going to be criticized. I feel the one sensible thing you can do is try to live in a way that pleases you.
I am one of the lucky people in the world; I found something I always wanted to do, and I have enjoyed every single minute of it.
People thought I was funny, so I kind of took entertaining for granted... it was inevitable that I'd start giving little performances.
The only thing money gives you is the freedom of not worrying about money.
My success just evolved from working hard at the business at hand each day.
It was a somber place, haunted by old jokes and lost laughter. Life, as I discovered, holds no more wretched occupation than trying to make the English laugh.
It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, there's a couple lying naked in bed reading Encyclopediea Brittannica to each other, and arguing about whether the Andromeda Galaxy is more 'numinous' than the Ressurection. Do they know how to have a good time, or don't they?
For me, suspense doesn't have any value if it's not balanced by humor.
Laughter has been implanted in our soul, that the soul may sometime be refreshed.
The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going.
Wit and playfulness represent a desperately serious transcendence of evil. Humor is both a form of wisdom and a means of survival.
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