Zena asks Louie to drive her friend Emily, who has just been dumped and is drugged, drunk, and upset, back to her apartment. While there, Emily comes on to Louie and he ends up cheating on Zena. Louie soon brags of his conquest, but Elaine gets so angry that she is about to tell Zena everything. Louie decides to tell Zena himself though, who understandably dumps him. Louie then shows up at Emily's apartment, but Emily is clearly regretting her indiscretion with Louie and is getting back with her boyfriend anyway, so she kicks him out quickly. Louie, back at the garage, is in tears because he is so upset at the turn of events. Alex, feeling sorry for Louie, gives him some sage advice on how to get Zena back. All of a sudden, Louie turns off the tears and Alex sees that he's been had and gets furious with himself. As Louie goes to talk to Zena (and presumably gets back together with her), he assures Alex that the tears were real.
Louie's romantic subplot drives 46 jokes at 2.34/min—peak character comedy density for Season 4.
Directed by James Burrows · Written by Sam Simon
WAR
55.9
Wins Above Replacement
“Louies Fling” ranks #9 of 114 Taxi episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 85.0 — Elite. The episode packs 46 scored jokes at 2.3 per minute, averaging 7.3 on craft and 7.1 on impact, with Louie landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
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Top Jokes
Louie: Wait a minute. Those tears were real.
Louie: I was faking it.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Zena: No.
Zena: You're a pissant.
Louie Zena Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: My girlfriend left me, and Emily got sober.
Louie: I've hit rock bottom.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Louie: You know what, Alex? Those weren't real tears.
Alex: What do you mean they weren't real tears?
Louie: I was thinking about my mortgage payments.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: Zena, I gotta tell you something. I... I strayed from the nest a little bit.
Zena: What are you talking about?
Louie: Well, I was out of town, and there was this beautiful woman, and I... I took a little detour from the main highway, if you know what I mean.
Zena: Louie!
Louie: I parked in the wrong garage!
Louie Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 46 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Alex: I'll be driving.
Louie: Alright, I got the perfect fare for you. Old woman, sick dog.
Louie Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: Mush, mush!
Alex: What are you doing?
Louie: You're pulling a sled dog job, Reiger. Mush!
Louie Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: That's tough, kid. You want a candy?
Louie Deadpan/Understatement Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: What do I do?
Louie: Shh.
Zena: Louie, that's not helping.
Louie: I didn't tell her to shut up. I said shh. There's a difference. Shh is a request for quiet. Shut up is a demand.
Louie Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: I'm taking medication from my doctor.
Emily: Then my mother started giving me pills.
Emily: Now even the building superintendent is handing me stuff.
Emily Escalation Absurdist ★ Rewatch Louie: You want some wine to go with those goofballs?
Louie Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: I shouldn't drink wine while I'm taking these pills.
Louie: Numb up!
Emily: I can't take it anymore! Everything's falling apart!
Louie: We'll be right back!
Louie Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: You know what your problem is? You keep picking the same type of guy over and over again. It's a pattern.
Emily: Really? I never thought of it that way.
Louie: Yeah, you gotta break the cycle. Find someone completely different.
Emily: You're right. Thank you, Louie. That's really helpful.
Louie: No problem. Hey, what time is it? I'm gonna miss the swimsuit competition on TV!
Louie Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm ★ Rewatch Callback Zena: I'm sorry about Louie. He can be such a lug sometimes.
Zena: But I'll tell you, every once in a while he does something that makes me proud of him.
Zena: Of course, he's still a lug.
Zena Character Comedy Reaction Beat Emily: I'm going to freshen up.
Emily: Maybe I'll finally meet someone who likes me.
Louie: Yeah, that's right. I'm the catch. If Emily sees me, she'll feel even worse.
Louie Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: I can't escort her home. I gotta stay here and work the night shift.
Zena: Come on, Louie. She's had a rough day.
Louie: Look, I'd love to help, but I'm telling you, I can't leave. Besides, what am I supposed to do, hold her hand the whole way?
Zena: That's all she needs.
Louie: Well, I don't have the talent for it.
Louie Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Alex: Of course, I'd be happy to pick you up.
Alex: Louie, you're a despicable human being.
Alex Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: Emily, this is Alex. Alex, this is Emily. She's emotional wreckage.
Emily: I'm standing right here.
Louie: I know.
Louie Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Emily: You know, you remind me of my ex-boyfriend.
Alex: Oh yeah? How so?
Emily: Well, he was... I mean, you're both kind of... you know, tall and... I'm going to stop talking now.
Emily Cringe/Discomfort Character Comedy Alex: Wait, wait. You're telling me I remind you of your ex-boyfriend? That's not a compliment!
Emily: No, no, it's not like that. You just have his same way of making me feel...
Alex: Feel what? Miserable? Angry? Like you need to call a lawyer?
Alex Reaction Beat Character Comedy Louie: She's just a little half-baked, that's all.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: These are photos and love letters from my ex.
Louie: You should burn them in the taxi ashtray.
Louie Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: You know, that's just like Derek. He always said my memories were worthless too. He'd burn anything that reminded him of me.
Emily Escalation Character Comedy Emily: Does anyone have a handkerchief?
Louie: You'd need a bedsheet.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: What's wrong? What happened? Tell me, tell me.
Emily: I'm just so upset!
Louie: There, there. It's gonna be okay. You're gonna be fine.
Louie: Now get out of my office.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Alex: Come on, Louie, walk Emily to her door.
Louie: What am I, a knight in shining armor? Next you'll want me to lay my cape across a puddle.
Louie: I'll walk you down the aisle, Emily. But I gotta tell you, I'm missing the Miss Universe pageant for this.
Emily: Louie, you do this every year.
Louie: Exactly! And now look what you're making me do.
Louie Character Comedy Absurdist ★ Rewatch Callback Emily: I hate being needy.
Louie: Hey, there's nothing wrong with needing people. We all need somebody. I need my coffee in the morning, I need a good cigar after lunch, and I need to know that at the end of the day, there's somebody who cares if I make it home alive. That's not needy, that's human.
Emily: You're a real friend, Louie.
Louie: You know, as Mark Twain once said, 'The man who calls himself your friend while taking your money is not a friend at all, he's a businessman.' Actually, I don't think Mark Twain said that. I just made that up.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: Yeah, well, I knew Mark Twain. Great guy. That quote? I told him that.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: I don't want him to go, but I'm so glad he's leaving.
Emily Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Alex: A full hour. I couldn't believe Louie would betray Zena.
Alex Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: She was crying, her mascara was running, she had just lost her job, her apartment, and her car was about to be repossessed.
Louie: I thought to myself, 'This is it. This is the moment. This is when I make my move.'
Louie Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: I'm telling you, I got two women. Two! I got Phyllis on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I got Betty on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Louie: Sunday I rest. Like the Lord.
Louie: I am a man of biblical proportions!
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: Listen to me, you mooks. I'm gonna give you some wisdom. Life is like a cabbage - you gotta peel back the layers to find what's inside.
Louie: And verily I say unto you, as it was written in the Book of Louie, Chapter Ugly, Verse Bald: The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Louie: So go forth and be fruitful, or whatever. And remember: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Unless it kills you. Then you're dead.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Elaine: Oh, so now you're using 'ye'? Well, ye can take your fake inspirational speech and shove it where the sun don't shine, ye pompous little toad.
Elaine Callback Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Tony: So how did your inspirational speech end?
Louie: I told them they were all a bunch of bums and to get out of my sight.
Louie Character Comedy Callback ★ Rewatch Callback Louie: Zena, I gotta tell you something. I... I strayed from the nest a little bit.
Zena: What are you talking about?
Louie: Well, I was out of town, and there was this beautiful woman, and I... I took a little detour from the main highway, if you know what I mean.
Zena: Louie!
Louie: I parked in the wrong garage!
Louie Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Zena: You cheated on me, Louie!
Louie: Me? A victim? I'm the real victim here. Do you know what it's like to have a woman find out about your other women?
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: She came on to me! What was I supposed to do? She was crying, she was on pills, she could barely stand up. She was all over me!
Louie: I'm the victim here! That dangerous seductress took advantage of me!
Louie Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Zena: No.
Zena: You're a pissant.
Louie Zena Misdirection Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Emily: I must have been drunk. I mean, look at him - he's got that awful toupee, those stubby little fingers, and that gravelly voice...
Emily: And his apartment smells like old cigars and regret. Plus he's got that hunched back and those weird little ears...
Emily: But the worst part? I remember thinking his cheap cologne and aggressive personality were somehow... charming.
Emily: You're a small, incompetent man with no redeeming qualities and no future.
Louie: So what?
Emily: You're gross and disgusting.
Louie: Gross? Disgusting? I'm like caviar.
Emily: Caviar?
Louie: Yeah. Repulsive at first, but once you get a taste for it, you can't get enough.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: My girlfriend left me, and Emily got sober.
Louie: I've hit rock bottom.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback Louie: She's got a heart as big as a pig.
Louie Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: She made me do things I never did with other women.
Louie: I talked baby talk.
Louie Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort ★ Rewatch Louie: You know what, Alex? Those weren't real tears.
Alex: What do you mean they weren't real tears?
Louie: I was thinking about my mortgage payments.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Louie: Wait a minute. Those tears were real.
Louie: I was faking it.
Louie Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Callback