A new kind of conversation is unfolding during the Los Angeles commute.
After landing its first Emmy nomination, the popular New York City social media interview series “SubwayTakes” has inspired a distinctly West Coast spin.
The parody, titled “Transit Takes,” trades crowded subway platforms for one of L.A.’s most familiar settings: cars stuck in relentless traffic.
Rather than catching subway riders between stops, host Chris Tcholakian approaches open car windows, interviewing back-seat passengers as drivers sound off about the realities of living in the City of Angels.
The bit leans into classic L.A. frustrations, including one driver’s emphatic complaint that “everyone forgets how to drive the second it sprinkles two drops of rain” in Southern California.
The sketch also takes aim at the region’s public transit headaches, joking about the Orange Line, the very idea of making “transfers” in Los Angeles and the newly expanded Metro D Line.
In one running joke, a drive from Silver Lake to Mid-Wilshire is likened to a trip from Bushwick to Midtown in New York — a playful nod to L.A.’s vast and often inconvenient sprawl.
The parody further lampoons the D Line’s $9.7 billion, decades-in-the-making construction project, inconsistent train arrival times and the city’s troubled history of transportation planning. It also riffs on the lengthy journey to spots like LACMA and the seemingly eternal divide between the eastside and westside.
As traffic threatens to finally start moving, Tcholakian desperately yells to one driver, “Take this alleyway!”
The moment is instantly cut short when another exasperated motorist stuck behind them bellows, “Go around!…F–k!”
The sketch quickly sparked reactions online.
One movie buff pushed back after a driver complained about movie dates, writing: “Insane opinion, the beautiful art of the 90 minute Hollywood blockbuster has been lost.”
Posted to Instagram on Friday, the parody has resonated with viewers by translating the frantic spirit of New York’s subway culture into a uniquely Los Angeles experience.
