The Soup Nazi

"The Soup Nazi"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 6
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Spike Feresten
Production code	706
Original air date	November 2, 1995
Guest actors
Larry Thomas Alexandra Wentworth Ana Gasteyer
Season 7 episodes
September 1995 – May 1996 "The Engagement" "The Postponement" "The Maestro" "The Wink" "The Hot Tub" "The Soup Nazi" "The Secret Code" "The Pool Guy" "The Sponge" "The Gum" "The Rye" "The Caddy" "The Seven" "The Cadillac, Part 1" "The Cadillac, Part 2" "The Shower Head" "The Doll" "The Friar's Club" "The Wig Master" "The Calzone" "The Bottle Deposit, Part 1" "The Bottle Deposit, Part 2" "The Wait Out" "The Invitations"
List of Seinfeld episodes

Not to be confused with The Soup.

"The Soup Nazi" is the title of the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which was the sixth episode of the seventh season. It first aired in the United States on November 2, 1995.

The Soup Nazi is also the nickname of the eponymous character played by Larry Thomas. The term "Nazi" is used as an exaggeration of the excessively strict regimentation he constantly demands of his patrons.

Plot

Jerry, George and Elaine go out to a new soup stand Kramer has been raving about; its owner is referred to as the "Soup Nazi," due to his temperament and insistence on a strict manner of behavior while ordering. Jerry explains the procedure for ordering, which George accepts, but Elaine rejects. En route, Elaine notices a sidewalk furniture dealer with an armoire for sale and decides to stop and buy it. However, when she returns to her building with it, the building superintendent tells her there is no moving allowed on Sundays.

When Jerry and George get to the soup stand, George follows the procedure but notices that he did not get the free bread with his soup order. Jerry tells him to let it go, but George asks for some and is told he will have to pay $2.00 for it. When George points out that that everybody in front of him got free bread, he is told that the price is now $3.00. George's continued protests are met with a harsh "No soup for you!" from the Soup Nazi, followed by the cashier immediately confiscating his soup and brusquely handing George's money back to him.

Over the past weeks, Jerry has been annoying George and Elaine with his open affection and baby talk (calling each other "Schmoopie") with his new girlfriend Sheila (Alexandra Wentworth). During another visit to the soup stand, when Sheila will not stop kissing Jerry in the line of customers, the Soup Nazi orders her out of the line, and Jerry is forced to pretend he does not know her. When George finds out, he admits his annoyance with their "baby talk" romantic behavior to Jerry. Jerry later tells Sheila he was just joking at the soup stand and makes up with her. When George finds out, he begins to act similarly with Susan to make a point. Susan misinterprets George's intentions and thinks that George is finally enjoying showing his feelings in public, continuing to act that way after Jerry again breaks up with Sheila.

Elaine, still awaiting the chance to move her new armoire upstairs, asks Kramer to guard the piece of furniture on the street overnight. When he arrives, she goes to the soup stand to get him soup. While she is gone, some "street toughs" intimidate Kramer and steal the armoire. At the soup stand, Elaine ignores everyone's prior advice and annoys the Soup Nazi with her behavior. He refuses her soup and bans her from coming to his restaurant for one year. She returns to her building to find Kramer without the armoire.

Later, Kramer, who has become friends with the Soup Nazi, tells him the story of the stolen armoire in passing. The Soup Nazi offers Kramer an antique armoire he has in storage in his basement. Kramer gives the armoire to Elaine as a replacement for her stolen one.

Elaine goes to thank the Soup Nazi for the armoire, but the Soup Nazi angrily declares that he never would have given it to Kramer if he had known it was for her, stating he would have smashed it to pieces with a hatchet instead. Offended, Elaine returns home, where she and Jerry subsequently discover the Soup Nazi's secret soup recipes, which have been left behind in a drawer of the old armoire.

She returns to his shop, recipes in hand, and declares that she is going to destroy him and his business by exposing the recipes. Her glee matches his in the way that he brushed her off earlier. Feeling ruined, the Soup Nazi decides to close the business and move to Argentina and starts giving away his remaining soup, which Newman and Jerry hurriedly try to take advantage of.

Production

"The Soup Nazi" was Spike Feresten's first credited Seinfeld episode as a writer. The idea for the episode arose when Feresten told Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David about New York soup vendor Al Yeganeh, who was nicknamed "The Soup Nazi." Seinfeld and David laughed and said, "That's a show. Do that as your first show." Feresten's inspiration for the armoire subplot was a New York apartment building in which he had lived, which forbade moving furniture on certain days. The armoire thieves were written as homosexual because Larry David decided that "only gay guys would steal an armoire."

The first cast table reading for "The Soup Nazi" was held on September 28, 1995, and it was filmed before a studio audience on October 3. In the episode, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) imitates Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. This was done at Jerry Seinfeld's suggestion, even though Louis-Dreyfus had never seen the film.

The character

Actor Larry Thomas effected his portrayal of the Soup Nazi by studying Omar Sharif's accent in Lawrence of Arabia.

The Soup Nazi was portrayed by Larry Thomas, who was nominated for a 1996 Emmy for the role. Thomas, who did not realize that the character was based on a real person, received the inspiration for his portrayal from watching Lawrence of Arabia and studying Omar Sharif's accent.

A stone-faced immigrant chef with a thick Stalin-esque moustache, he is renowned throughout Manhattan for his soups. He demands that all customers in his restaurant meticulously follow his strict queuing, ordering, and payment policies. Failure to adhere to his demands brings the stern admonition ("No soup for you!"), whereupon the customer is refunded and denied his or her order. He will then yell at the top of his lungs to the next person in line, "Next!" Elaine parodies this when she reveals that she has his recipes. She says to him, "You're through, Soup Nazi. Pack it up. No more soup for you. NEXT!"

The Soup Nazi has a cameo in the Seinfeld series finale, in which his name is revealed as Yev Kassem, which he refuses to spell. While serving his soup to people at the courthouse, Kassem is asked by Poppie for some salt. This angers Kassem, who takes away his soup.

Inspiration

The restaurant Soup Kitchen International was the inspiration for this episode of Seinfeld. The restaurant closed in 2004, but has since reopened.

The character was inspired by Al Yeganeh, a soup vendor who runs Soup Kitchen International in New York City. Yegeneh has stated on numerous occasions that he is very offended by the "Soup Nazi" moniker.

According to writer Spike Feresten, Jerry Seinfeld and several members of the production team went to Soup Kitchen International for lunch weeks after "The Soup Nazi" aired. Upon recognizing Seinfeld, Yeganeh went into a profanity-filled rant about how the show had "ruined" his business and demanded an apology. Seinfeld allegedly gave what Feresten describes as "the most insincere, sarcastic apology ever given". Obviously having seen the episode, Yeganeh then bellowed, "No soup for you!" and ejected them from the restaurant.

According to Nora Ephron's DVD commentary, the first pop culture reference to Yeganeh (though not by name) seems to have come years before the Seinfeld episode, in the 1993 movie Sleepless in Seattle. In the film, a magazine writer discusses writing a story: "This man sells the greatest soup you have ever eaten, and he is the meanest man in America. I feel very strongly about this, Becky; it's not just about the soup."

Legacy

• Like Jackie Chiles, the Soup Nazi has appeared in commercials after the end of the series. In an advertisement by the Center for Consumer Freedom, he denies food to people he considers to be too fat.
• Larry Thomas appeared as himself in the Scrubs episode "My Self-Examination." He denies he is the Soup Nazi when asked by J.D. (Zach Braff), who then tricks him into saying the catchphrase "No soup for you!" by asking him "What is [the catchphrase] again? It's like, 'You're out of luck in the soup department...'"
• In August 2009, Albert Gonzalez was convicted for robbery, being the most prolific hacker of credit cards (130 million). He operated on the Internet using the handle: "Soupnazi."
• Larry Thomas has used the character to promote soup kitchens for the homeless.
• Larry Thomas appeared, in character, along with Jerry Seinfeld in a television commercial for Acura that aired during the 2012 Super Bowl. In the advertisement, Seinfeld is trying to bribe an ordinary guy to get an Acura, offering him soup from The Soup Nazi, who happily offers "Soup for you!".
• Washington D.C. Rapper Wale used lines from the episode as an introduction and outro to his song "The Soup" on his More About Nothing Mix-Tape. He acts as the Soup Nazi and uses the catchphrase "No soup for you!"
• In the 2010 reboot of classic video game NBA Jam for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii, when an alley-oop maneuver is blocked by an opponent, you can hear the announcer say, "No hoop for you!" In 2011's NBA Jam: On-Fire Edition, the tagline "No soup for you!" can be purchased among numerous rewards for the player's card.
• In July 2012, the Seinfeld Food Truck embarked on an eight-stop United States tour. The truck, driven by Soup Nazi actor Larry Thomas, handed out free soup, Snapple, Twix, Junior Mints, black and white cookies and muffin tops.
• In 2013, Serbu Firearms refused to sell their model BFG-50A semi-automatic .50 rifles to the New York City Police Department after the passage of the NY SAFE Act that classified their weapon as an assault rifle. Following their refusal to sell the rifles, Serbu then had tee shirts printed with an image of the The Soup Nazi character with the words "No Serbu For You". Thomas, a gun control advocate, contacted Facebook and the T-shirt printers to have the shirts removed. Serbu has since removed the image of Thomas and replaced it with one of their founder Mark Serbu.

Critical response

Linda S. Ghent, Professor in the Department of Economics at Eastern Illinois University, discusses this episode in terms of its dramatization of the economic issue of market power. The Soup Nazi has monopoly power because he has the power to alter the market price of the goods and services he sells, such as charging George $2, and then $3, for bread. The soup seller is free to practice price discrimination against George and can banish Elaine from his restaurant because he doesn't like her attitude. Because the Soup Nazi's soup is so good, his reign over New York's soup is powerful to the point that his customers prefer his market, and even his abuse, rather than seek soup elsewhere. Elaine breaks his monopoly when she finds his recipes.

External links

• The Soup Nazi at the Internet Movie Database
• Soup Nazi Fan Site
• Seinfeld - Official Site
• Larry Thomas, Seinfeld actor, audio interview at MrMedia.com