During the drive to and from turkey-related festivities this weekend, I was able to catch up on some podcasts. Aside from the splendor that most of us know at This American Life, I’ve also been listening lately to stories from the Moth.

While driving, I listened to writer Andy Borowitz talk about the misery of writing for the television show The Facts of Life. And while the story as a whole was fun, there was a portion at the beginning I want to point out. Borowitz makes excuses for why he wrote for what he refers to as “the worst television show ever produced.” Specifically, he says: “I was broke. I didn’t have a car. I was taking the bus, which in Los Angeles is akin to eating out of a dumpster.”

The audience chuckles knowingly.

I hate to be a buzzkill, but the humor from which this joke comes from is unsettling. I don’t fault Borowitz or the audience; they are recognizing the societal norm of the city – the inherent and necessary capital that a car represents.

See, nearly all of my current students are 16 or older. I could count the number of students that have or regularly borrow family cars on one hand and still be able to throw out scissors in a friendly game of ro sham bo (whether these students are driving legally is an entirely other discussion, considering some of them are considered undocumented). My classroom isn’t an exception or an outlier in terms of car ownership in this part of town.

The types of people that have the tech know-how to regularly seek out and listen to podcasts or have the free time and extra cash to go out to a theater or club to catch live entertainment are certainly going to be car owning Angelenos. However, let’s be aware of the fact that there is an entire population in this city that is denigrated in this humor. I am reminded of a text I read while working on my Masters several years ago. Pauline Lipman’s analysis of the “dual city” emerges from a closer look at a seemingly harmless joke.