"The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good"
About this Quote
The subtext is pragmatic and a little unsentimental. “Laugh and cry and feel good” maps the ideal arc of a night out or a broadcast: tension, release, catharsis, uplift. That’s not accidental; it’s engineered. Johnson’s Lakers were built on pace, flair, and narrative - Showtime as a feeling machine. Even his post-NBA career, from public HIV advocacy to ownership and media ventures, sits in that same understanding: people attach to stories when they can locate themselves inside the emotion.
There’s also a quiet democratic claim here. “The audience” isn’t an elite group to be educated; it’s a crowd with legitimate desires. Critics can sneer at sentiment, but Johnson argues that the appetite for joy and tears isn’t shallow - it’s how mass culture bonds strangers. In an era when sports and entertainment compete with endless scrolling, his point lands harder: attention follows affect. If you can make people feel something cleanly and together, you’ve already won the game.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Johnson, Magic. (2026, January 16). The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-audience-likes-their-emotions-to-be-touched-132501/
Chicago Style
Johnson, Magic. "The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-audience-likes-their-emotions-to-be-touched-132501/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The audience likes their emotions to be touched. They want to laugh and cry and feel good." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-audience-likes-their-emotions-to-be-touched-132501/. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.




