Taxi

Taxi's Louie scene moved the audience from laugh to feeling to laugh. Steven Levitan points to a Taxi scene where Louie's pain is revealed, with the shopping-in-the-boys-department reveal turning into a hug and then the biggest laugh. In another telling he describes Louie grabbing Elaine's backside after the reveal. He uses it as his model for emotion in comedy.

Levitan says the scene took viewers from laugh to powerful to laugh again. His rule is that an emotional beat should be understated, in character and earned: "you want them to sneak up on you." This account comes from Levitan, the Modern Family co-creator, not from the Taxi writers.

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