Time & Perspective Quote by Johnny Carson

New York gets sold as pure kinetic glamour, but Carson twists the knife with a single deadpan addendum: "most unsolved". It’s classic late-night economy: set up the postcard, then reveal the crime blotter hiding behind it. The line works because it flatters the city and indicts it in the same breath, capturing New York’s self-mythology as nonstop action while hinting that much of that action is chaos, corruption, or just plain menace.

Carson’s intent isn’t to litigate urban policy; it’s to puncture hype with a wink. In the era when New York was a national symbol of both culture and dysfunction (the 1970s-early 1990s storyline of fiscal crisis, high crime, tabloid fear, subway graffiti), "something is happening" reads like tourist-brochure optimism. "Most unsolved" yanks the audience back to the nightly news: the city as a place where stories don’t resolve neatly, where the plotlines pile up faster than anyone can close the case.

The subtext is also about media itself. Late-night comedy feeds on the city’s constant churn of headlines; New York is a content machine. Carson frames that abundance as suspicious: if everything is always happening, maybe it’s because the system can’t keep up. It’s an affectionate roast that lets Middle America feel savvy about the big, intimidating metropolis, while New Yorkers get to enjoy the bitter pride of recognition. The joke’s sting is its realism: excitement and instability can be the same energy, just branded differently.