Evening news is where they begin with "Good evening," and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

The line hinges on irony: “Good evening” is a conventional greeting, but the broadcast’s content often undermines the very idea of a “good” evening. It critiques how news framing can shape mood and perception—suggesting that the medium’s incentives favor alarming narratives that keep attention, even if they distort a viewer’s sense of everyday reality. As a compact piece of cultural criticism, it also points to the tension between journalism’s duty to report serious events and the entertainment logic of television, where negativity can become a default tone. The humor works because it captures a familiar emotional experience: being greeted warmly and then inundated with reasons to feel anxious.