I had my car towed. There's nothing wrong with it. That was just cheaper than buying a tank of gas.

Framed as a deadpan one-liner, the joke hinges on an absurd cost comparison: towing a perfectly functional car is presented as more economical than filling the gas tank. The humor comes from exaggerating real-world frustration with fuel prices into an irrational “money-saving” strategy, a classic stand-up move that turns everyday economic anxiety into comic logic. It also plays on the incongruity between the inconvenience of towing and the supposed thriftiness of the choice, implicitly satirizing how price spikes can make normal behavior feel untenable. As with much of Leno’s observational comedy, the line uses a relatable premise—complaining about gas costs—to land a punchline that’s both implausible and emotionally recognizable.