California is a fine place to live–if you happen to be an orange.

Allen’s quip punctures the boosterish myth of California as universally idyllic by narrowing its “fine place to live” reputation to the state’s agricultural image—especially citrus. The joke hinges on a deadpan conditional: California may be paradise, but only for something that thrives in its climate and economy, like an orange. Implicitly, he suggests that human lives are more complicated than sunshine-and-oranges advertising: costs, crowding, work, and social realities can make the promised paradise feel selective or illusory. The line exemplifies Allen’s skeptical, urban wit and his habit of deflating clichés with a single absurdly literal twist.