The Soup

"The Soup" provided a window into the trash-strewn world of television on a weekly basis, guilt-free. That's one of the (many) reasons I tuned in each week. Just the morbid fascination with the awfulness being peddled by major networks on a regular basis. The only way you can watch any reality TV is with someone viciously making fun of it, and Joel McHale was the perfect host. He had just the right balance of snark and likability to make the circus funny.

And I love the running gags; Mankini, Lou the Chihuahua, Whitney Houston's "KISSMYASS!", spaghetti cat, all of them. McHale's doesn't really need pity (he'll do fine), it's the writers and interns you have to feel bad for. They came up with some damn good material, week after week (all the while making their host look good). And you've gotta love a staff that so joyously lampoons their employers.

I give this show immense credit for completely differentiating itself from "Talk Soup" (apples and oranges, really), not to mention all of the knock-offs that came afterword (Web Junk, Web Soup, Tosh.0, yadda yadda yadda). It was something special, and it will indeed be missed.

10/10

The Soup has become one of those nifty little pleasures of cable TV for me recently. To say that it's a guilty pleasure might be a little hard to say, as it is basically just a summary of all of the weird, crazy, delirious, whatever-you-call-it, and plain bad and near offensive TV of the past week. So to say it's a guilty pleasure would mean that it's sort of wrong on a level to watch the show, hard to admit. But the whole program is like a full-on pop culture version with a little more goofiness of what the Daily Show does in its first eight or nine minutes of reviewing clips. It's satire, though of a fairly low denomination where very cheap graphics, sometimes lame jokes, and lots of tongue placed in as many firm cheeks as possible end up squeezing out jokes. It's hosted by Joel McHale in a very smarmy, sarcastic manner, but he makes it work for what it's worth, and one becomes sort of adjusted to what his shtick is after a while.

Ironically, McHale has his work cut out for him, because the clips are sometimes very funny on their own, without really a word or gesture or gag to add to it. Reality Show clip-time, Chat Stew ("so meaty"), What the Kids Are Watching, and Clip of the Week are among the regulars, and in this dire swamp of pop culture and other TV- sometimes stretching to international lengths with Spanish soap operas and inexplicable Japanese shows- is never-ending. If anything as time goes on, there's almost too much to choose from. There are new categories created each week by McHale and his writers, two of them being funny by themselves in just having no other choice but to make fun of where the Soup itself broadcasts from- the E network (Lets Take Some E! is one new segment, as well as a whole list of those un-Godly tabloid TV shows like E.T. and Access Hollywood). It's basically a fun way to spend half an hour on a Friday night or Saturday morning, and as someone who doesn't really watch much TV and tries, sometimes without success, to avoid bad TV even when it's ironically good or horrific celebrities and people on reality shows I shouldn't give a damn about, it's a great little treat.

I don't watch a lot of TV, except for The Office, Weeds, Entourage and E!'s Soup. I think I hold this show in good company.

I love the scathing review of pop culture that this show gives. Soup also helps me stay on top of what people in the office are referring to when talking about a Sanjaya or Heidi Montag (sp?).

The best part is that Soup shows clips of the highlights of these shows, which are usually the funniest or most controversial moments (c'mon, most people get hooked into watching American Idol because of the freak show that are the auditions), which is why most people claim to watch. And that means, I don't have to suffer through the other 98% of these mind numbing talk shows or "reality" shows, for one nugget of "funny" or "shock." The only reason why Soup doesn't get a 10 in my opinion are sometime the sketches are not that funny, and on an even rarer occasion, the commentary isn't always up to par. But they can't all be home runs either, if so, Soup wouldn't be on E!.

Joel's quick wit and Soup's writing team (which includes McHale) make for a great show. I happen to enjoy the laughing and comments from the crew who are off-camera. Even when they're being blatantly obvious by giving occasional courtesy laughs, it's hilarious because it IS forced. They're obviously being ironic. And that's part of what makes this show funny.

In an age where the Kardashians are revered and not reviled as they should be, a show like The Soup can make me feel that I am not the only one watching the horror show that is modern pop culture melting and devolving further and further into a sinking abyss of despair. Through Joel Mchale and staff's wit and irony they were able to somehow make this bitter pill more palatable and made it seem, well not so terrible. We as the audience felt a part of the mockery and could all laugh together and it seemed like those shows were made just for us Soup fans so we had something to laugh at. The honey boo boos and Duck Dynastys, RuPauls Drag Races and psychic whatevers , Ghost Hunting BS-ers and Finding Bigfoots et al could be hilarious and not horrifying. Now without Joel's charm and all the brilliant guest appearances (Lucy Lawless, Mankini and a paint roller full of cheese for one), bizarre regular characters (dancing maxi-Pad and the brilliant parody of Kim Fields) and sometimes even Shakespearean level (through sheer effort alone if anything) skits, E will degenerate into a steaming pile of garish reality, fashion criticisms and embarrassing red carpet interview shows without irony and without the channels' self-mockery provided by The Soup, there is just despair that anyone will really want to view these shows without the reasoning that they will be in on it when The Soup mocks them weekly.

I am deeply saddened. I have been watching The Soup for a long time. I became a fan of Community because of Joel and even trekked all the way to Rama, Ontario to see him live. There have been some very dark days indeed for me and though yes, pitiably enough you may think, but yes, often it was my lone life preserver to look forward to being thrown at me. The one short, shining period that I knew laughter would come and brighten my mood. Sometimes it was just enough to get me through. I am not simply referencing some self- indulgent depression here, I was recovering from a brutal crime. Not trying to elicit sympathy, I am merely pointing out it was really a bad time for me. Though times for me now are thankfully not so bad, who knows what else may come my way without the solace of The Soup to comfort me? This is a show that relies on freshness and current culture so re-reruns, though charming just don't have the same oomph. In fact isn't that one of the major functions of entertainment for us in general? The sweet escape, the feeling of belonging to a group and the comfort that it will be there for us, even when so many things in this life are not reliable. With heavy heart and many thanks I bid goodbye to The Soup, I will miss you greatly.

This comment is just to say that this show is great social commentary, satire, and humor. Everything Joel McHale says is what deep down we all are thinking. For instance, an American Idol contestant with an Eastern European accent is sinking "I'm proud to be an American" very badly and Joel says "we should close the boarders." It may be sarcasm but it's true. However, he can be accused of cheating at humor by showing clips that would garner laughs even if he made no comments. The "Laguna Beach," David Hasselhoff, and Whitney Houston clips are meant for laughs by the performers.

Some segments begin with a montage of subject matter such as what children, old people, chat shows, E!, or a man watches. It adds to the hilarity and absurdity of the era we live in. I'd give it an 8 out of ten.