In LA we get coyotes in our garbage cans. Coyotes are just like my relatives. They go out in pairs, they whine at night, and they go anywhere there's food.

Billy Crystal’s joke uses a familiar Los Angeles image—urban coyotes rummaging through trash—to pivot into affectionate self-mockery about family. By likening coyotes to “relatives,” he draws humor from exaggerated parallels: moving in pairs, making noise at night, and showing up wherever there’s food. The line plays on the stereotype of relatives descending on gatherings for free meals, while also capturing a specifically LA blend of suburban life and wildlife intrusion. The humor depends on comic overstatement and the safe target of one’s own family, turning a minor nuisance into a relatable observation about kinship and opportunism.