A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.

Steve Martin’s line is a deliberately “anti-aphoristic” joke from his early stand-up persona, which often parodied the form of profound, inspirational sayings by delivering an obvious or deflated punchline. The humor depends on the audience’s expectation of a clever metaphor (“A day without sunshine is like…”) and Martin’s abrupt undercutting of that expectation with a banal literalism (“…night”), further softened by the conversational filler “you know.” The quote circulated widely in print and on posters as a quintessential example of Martin’s 1970s-era absurdist, self-mocking comedy style.

The joke satirizes the human appetite for tidy wisdom. It begins in the register of a proverb—promising a fresh comparison—then collapses into a statement that is technically true but comically useless. The phrase “you know” heightens the effect: it mimics casual speech and signals that the speaker is not even trying to be profound. As a result, the line becomes a miniature critique of cliché and pseudo-insight, showcasing Martin’s comic method of exposing how often “deep” sayings are just familiar ideas dressed up as revelation.

1) "A day without sunshine is like, you know, night."
2) "A day without sunshine is like night."