Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings.

The joke reduces opera to a single, exaggerated convention: extreme emotion expressed through song at moments when ordinary realism would demand silence, shock, or death. By contrasting a stabbing—an image of sudden, bodily harm—with the victim’s continued singing, the line pokes fun at opera’s stylization and its prioritization of musical expression over naturalistic behavior. It also hints at why opera can feel both absurd and compelling: the art form transforms pain and catastrophe into heightened, formal beauty. The quip works as affectionate satire, acknowledging opera’s implausibility while implicitly admiring its ability to make even violence “sing.”