It was probably a coincidence, but right after I was born, my mom and dad left town.

A self-deprecating one-liner in the classic Bob Hope persona: the comedian casts himself as so troublesome or ill-fated that his own parents immediately fled after his birth. The humor hinges on mock causality (“probably a coincidence”)—a feigned rational caveat that only highlights the absurd implication. Like many of Hope’s jokes, it turns personal biography into a universal comic situation, inviting audiences to laugh at exaggerated insecurity and the fear of being unwanted. The line also reflects the vaudeville/one-liner tradition in which a punchline is delivered as a deadpan “fact,” with the speaker as the butt of the joke.