The Soup

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The Soup
The current 'set' of The Soup with Joel McHale.
Format	Comedy
Created by	Jay James
Presented by	Joel McHale
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	5[1]
No. of episodes	193[1]
Production
Running time	22 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	E!
Original run	July 1, 2004 – Present
Chronology
Preceded by	Talk Soup
Related shows	The Dish Sports Soup Web Soup Celebrity Soup
External links
Official website

The Soup is an E! Entertainment Television weekly series. It is a revamped version of Talk Soup that focuses on recaps of various pop culture and television show moments of the week. The show is hosted by Joel McHale, who provides sarcastic and biting commentary on the various clips.

Contents 1 History 2 Format 2.1 Regular characters 3 Regular features 3.1 Chat Stew 3.2 Chicks, Man 3.3 Reality Show Clip Time! 3.4 Let's Take Some E! 3.5 Clip of the Week 3.6 Other segments 4 Recurring jokes 4.1 Clips 4.2 Edited clips 4.3 Original content 5 The Soup Presents 6 Reception 7 Other versions 7.1 The Dish 7.2 Sports Soup 7.3 Web Soup 7.4 Celebrity Soup 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

The Soup started in July 2004 as the "What The...? Awards," but the name was changed to maintain name recognition with Talk Soup.^[2]

[edit] Format

The show features the host, Joel McHale, on a greenscreened set with a screen to his right. The show is broken up into various segments that focus on themes such as reality television shows or shows on E!. McHale introduces each clip, which is then played. He then comments on the clip before moving onto the next one. There is a live audience on the show, comprised of a small group of E! employees, their family and friends, along with the typical production personnel. The audience is largely involved in the show, laughing and cheering along with the clips.

Although the show is scripted, a large portion of the show is ad-libbed.^[3]

On April 22, 2008, a blog was started for The Soup on E!'s website.^[4]

[edit] Regular characters

The Soup has its own cast of recurring characters. They include Mankini (a man wearing a bikini), a dancing maxipad, two nerds who dress as Star Wars characters, an intern named Matt who McHale shoots with a gun (often with the shooting sound effect purposefully played out of sync, or even played with other objects or with just fingers), Jewbacca (Chewbacca's lawyer), and "Spaghetti Cat", a cat eating spaghetti from The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. Additionally, Tom McNamara, The Soup's stage manager and former stage manager on Talk Soup, and Kelly Andrews, the show's announcer and a producer, have also made appearances on the show. Executive producer Edward Boyd's chihuahua Lou is used regularly in segment openings and elsewhere in the show. He also appears with Joel at the show's intro, which shows them watching a different TV show each week.

[edit] Regular features

The show has a great number of segments that focus on various genres of television shows.

[edit] Chat Stew

"Chat Stew" features clips from various talk shows. It is introduced with a CGI crock pot filled with talk show logos and host heads, while Andrews purrs, "So meaty!", often followed by an audience member groaning disgustedly. Clips are often shown from Today, Dr. Phil, Oprah , The Wendy Williams Experience, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, The View, Fox and Friends, Good Day L.A., and The Tyra Banks Show.

[edit] Chicks, Man

This segment focuses on female celebrity news, such as Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. The segment's logo is a photo of baby chicks accompanied by a deep male voiceover saying "Chicks, Man!" The introduction to this segment has featured people such as Ryan Seacrest, Richard Branson, Constantine Maroulis, MTV's A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila and That's Amoré star Domenico Nesci, as well as American Idol winner David Cook. Joel often leads up to this segment by saying "Let's talk about chicks, man." There have been two "The Soup Presents: Chicks, Man" specials featuring reality show female stars.

[edit] Reality Show Clip Time!

The show features this segment after the first commercial break. It is often announced by McHale either yelling or whispering "It's Reality Show Clip time!" while the audience cheers, but he often will make incoherent noises, or merely scream to announce the segment. During this segment, clips from various reality shows are played. Clips are usually shown from such programs as American Idol, Wife Swap, America's Next Top Model and Dancing With The Stars, "America's Got Talent".

[edit] Let's Take Some E!

"Let's Take Some E!" features clips from E! shows. During this segment, McHale shows clips from whatever shows are currently airing new episodes; Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Girls Next Door are often shown. Recurring jokes include making fun of Kendra Wilkinson on The Girls Next Door, and McHale almost always introducing Kim Kardashian as being "famous for having a big ass and a sex tape," while he describes her sisters as "dead behind the eyes." The intro to this segment is a close-up of a woman's lips closing over and swallowing the E! logo as club music plays in the background, and is a tongue-in-cheek reference to taking the party drug ecstasy, commonly known as "E". It is now sometimes cut to show just the flashing disco ball with the club music still in the background. Often, the camera will zoom in and out or side-to-side to the beat of the music, making McHale appear to bounce around the set. McHale occasionally remarks that the segment is just a contractual obligation to promote other E! programming.

[edit] Clip of the Week

"The Clip of the Week" is one which The Soup staff considers to be the best clip shown on TV over the past week. Prior to a commercial break, this upcoming segment is often called the "The Kick-Ass Clip of the Week." This segment has had several different introductions, and currently alternates which intro is used every few weeks.

Past intros have included:

• A simulation of Lou being neutered by Joel, who is dressed as a veterinarian, with the snapping of scissors signifying the "clip." It ends with Lou howling in pain.
• A modified version of Lou being neutered, in which a member of PETA slaps Joel and grabs Lou before he is neutered.
• A scene in which Joel is clipping Lou's nails in a salon, and accidentally clips one too short, causing Lou to howl in pain.
• A scene in which Joel and Lou descend on wires into a large room and stop in front of a VCR, before they insert a tape featuring the clip of the week. It is a parody of a scene from the first Mission: Impossible film.
• A scene in which Joel is reading the book Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography by Andrew Morton and Lou is mowing the lawn and mows over Joel's legs, severing them.

[edit] Other segments

• "What's Pissing Off Steve Edwards This Week?" features clips from KTTV's Good Day L.A. in which something or somebody makes Steve Edwards upset in the clip. Another episode featured a parody of the segment, "What's Exciting Rick Dickert This Week?"
• "Tales from Home Shopping" features clips from QVC or HSN.
• "What The Kids Are Watching" showcases unusual and weird clips from children's shows and commercials aimed at children, such as Yo Gabba Gabba!. Two spinoff segments have been produced based on the segment: "What the Old Folks Are Watching," which no longer airs, does the same for content geared toward older people, and "What Your Boyfriend is Lookin' At" has clips from shows geared at male audiences, such as Scream Queens.
• "Clippos Magnificos" features clips from Spanish telenovelas and shows, such as Así es la vida, La Madrastra and Infarto.
• "My Stories" shows clips from daytime soap operas, such as The Bold and the Beautiful. The intro is a shot of McHale with a loud organ playing soap opera music, which McHale mocks.
• "Miley Cyrus News" documents stories involving Miley Cyrus, which always begins with a female voice yelling "It's Miley!" Variations include stories involving Britney Spears in which a highly modulated voice exclaims, "It's Britney, bitch!" or Lindsay Lohan news in which an overly hoarse and unenthusiastic voices states, "It's Lindsay."
• "International House of Soup" showcases clips from programs originating outside of North America, such as Korean dramas.
• "Local Newsbreak" features embarrassing clips from local newscasts
• "Ad Nauseum" pokes fun at commercials, often with McHale misusing the product after the clip is done.
• "The Mail Nurse" showcases viral videos found on the Internet, and opens with Joel in a nurse's outfit seductively saying "It's time to check your RAM" as his nurse's cap clumsily slides off his head. McHale often comments on how much he hates this intro.

Special guests have been known to appear on the show, often in parody of themselves. Tila Tequila, Wolf from American Gladiators, Bret Michaels from Rock of Love, Tanisha from The Bad Girls Club and recently, Corey Feldman from The Lost Boys and Robot Chicken creator Seth Green have been on the show and reprised jokes made about them. Recently, Jeanne Bice from The Quacker Factory, Anil Kapoor from the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire, several cast members from the hit AMC TV series Mad Men, LeVar Burton, and Ashley Greene from the 2008 movie Twilight have appeared on The Soup. Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes from Spaced made an appearance poking fun at the outcome of the MTV reality series Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, and Olbermann and McHale began a comedy feud about putting each other's footage on the other's shows.

[edit] Recurring jokes

The show has a number of recurring jokes and segments. One of the most frequent jokes is Joel McHale making fun of Ryan Seacrest. He usually comments on Seacrest's height, sexuality, clothing, busy work schedule, income, or demeanor.

Joel has also spoofed other actors, most notably CSI: Miami leading man David Caruso, who plays Lieutenant Horatio Caine. He usually makes fun of the character's tendency to always put on his sunglasses and say corny one-liners at the start of every episode (Followed by the first 2-3 seconds of the opening sequence). Joel also will sometimes spoof a person after a clip.

Joel also jokes about how self-centered Tyra Banks is on her self-titled talk show. More jokes are Joel making fun of Spencer Pratt's "creepy flesh colored beard" and Larry King's age and how he is still alive (King is 75). Also, McHale often comically berates or abuses "interns" for the show, usually ending with a poorly timed (or sometimes completely out-of-place) audio clip of a gun firing after McHale uses a prop gun on them. McHale has often attempted to "shoot" Mankini, but with no effect.

Recently, the Spaghetti Cat from The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet has been used a number of times, usually with a model of the cat rolling in, looking at Joel, and then rolling back out.

[edit] Clips

A number of clips have been repeatedly shown on The Soup. One clip features Oprah Winfrey saying "My va-jay-jay is painin'!" while hanging from a harness at the Miraval resort.^[5] Another clip involves Whitney Houston yelling "Kiss My Ass!" at her husband. McHale has mentioned that this clip is one of his favorites.^[3] Still another clip that is often shown is of The Today Show's news correspondent Ann Curry starting her report by saying, "Good morning, good morning everybody, in the news this morning, good morning," which Olbermann mimicked on his appearance on the July 25th, 2008 show. Joel often shows a clip of Kendra Wilkinson from Girls Next Door laughing. When someone mentions marriage on the show, they will often show a clip of Elizabeth Taylor screaming "Marriage?! Noooooo!" Shorter clips are sometimes used as interjections. Clips of Sanjaya Malakar, Danny Noriega, and more recently, Tatianna Del Torro giggling uncontrollably, have been used as part of McHale's reactions to clips. Recent favorites include Gary Busey exclaiming "I'm going to pull your endocrine system out of your body", Tila Tequila yelling out "A pig's vagina!", Michelle Galdenzi from Scream Queens saying "and by record, I mean vagina.", Big Brother contestants Jase Wirey and Michelle Costa "talking" to one another using animal and computer sounds, respectively; "Chicken Tetrazzini" clip from Maury, and Spencer Pratt from The Hills whispering "That's the problem."

[edit] Edited clips

The Soup will often make blatant and obvious edits to clips of shows, often killing off characters (as in their versions of Laguna Beach and The Hills) or splicing McHale and other characters into the shows. McHale will often punctuate the clip by saying "We doctored that."

[edit] Original content

Original skits are integrated into the show as responses or jokes to clips. Fake movie trailers and advertisements are created as spoofs to segments or clips. Among the movies spoofed are Spider-Man 3 (in reference to McHale's appearance in Spider-Man 2), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Made of Honor, Mamma Mia, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Quarantine, (in which McHale spoofed with Quarantween about Disney Channel Celebrities), Prom Night and Fast & Furious.

[edit] The Soup Presents

In addition to regular episodes, special episodes of The Soup have been shown under the header "The Soup Presents". Episodes of this nature have been produced on topics such as models and modeling shows, fights on television, and talk shows, two "Chicks, Man" specials focusing on reality TV females, and most recently, a show dedicated to television programs that have had recurring appearances on The Soup (the "shows [they] just can't quit"). During the holiday seasons, two-part episodes showcasing the best clips of the year are aired (Clipdowns).

[edit] Reception

This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please help improve the article by updating it. There may be information on the talk page.

The Soup started off as a relatively quiet show, but has become one of the most popular shows on E!. It is the third highest rated show on the network.^[6]

[edit] Other versions

Since E! is owned by Comcast Entertainment Group, their sibling channels have done tailored versions for Style, Versus and G4, all taped in the same studio and utilizing the same crew.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The Dish

On August 16, 2008, Style premiered The :Dish, a show focusing more on celebrity, magazine, and fashion industry trends, along with style and fashion-related reality programs in more detail, including Project Runway and various shows on the shopping channels, HGTV and DIY Network. The :Dish is hosted by Danielle Fishel and airs Saturday nights at 10pm ET.

[edit] Sports Soup

On September 15, 2008, E! parent Comcast Entertainment Group announced another spin-off, this time sports-related, of the series, which airs on the group's sports network, Versus, called Sports Soup and is hosted by Matt Iseman ^[7]. The program airs twice weekly at 10pm ET on Tuesdays and Thursdays (or later depending on the end of NHL on Versus or other sports coverage), and debuted on October 14.

[edit] Web Soup

A third version, airing on G4, titled Web Soup, hosted by Chris Hardwick debuted June 7 at 9 PM ET. This version is more of a blend of the commentary and reaction portions of The Soup and two other G4 programs; Whacked Out Videos and the Around the Net viral video segment which opens Attack of the Show.

[edit] Celebrity Soup

Celebrity Soup was the British version of the American show hosted by comedian Iain Lee. Unlike The Soup, Celebrity Soup airs 19 episodes in a season, instead of year-round like in the United States. It had some of the same features as the original (i.e. "Chat Stew"), but also has its own running gags and features. The series had a similar set, with a window overlooking London's Big Ben instead of Hollywood, as in the U.S. original.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Soup from E! Online
• The Soup's Official Blog
• The Soup at MySpace
• The Soup at the Internet Movie Database
• The Soup channel at YouTube
• The Soup at TV.com
• The Soup's Executive Producer and head writer KP Anderson on Twitter

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