Advice to children crossing the street: damn the lights. Watch the cars. The lights ain't never killed nobody.

In this punchline-style “advice,” Moms Mabley uses streetwise logic to mock blind faith in rules and signals. The joke pivots on a literal truth—traffic lights don’t physically harm anyone—while pointing out the real danger: inattentive or fast-moving cars. Beneath the humor is a pragmatic ethic associated with Mabley’s stage persona: survival depends less on official assurances than on alertness to what actually has power to hurt you. It also plays as a broader social metaphor: don’t rely on institutions or formal permissions for safety; keep your eyes on the forces that can impact you directly.