The Soup

First there was Talk Soup , a show that focused on trashy, well some of them were trashy talk shows, and it always had a funny host who knew the right kind of jokes to say. And then it went off the air. And in 2004 it gets brought back, and it is retitled The Soup, with host Joel McHale commenting and coming up with very funny one liners. They must pick the right clips from those shows because Joel Mchale delivers those jokes funny and perfectly. Some of those shows are just screaming out to be poked fun, like The View, And American Idol. And Joel McHale proves to be a comic genius. The Soup is just a half hour of fun. Please keep it up JOEL.

Sam and me watch this show and it is hysterical. Joel McHale (the host of the soup) is Hilarius. Jewbacca is funny. Bikini man is Hilarius. Whats funny that Jewbacca talks about two wookies sitting in a deli. Whats cute that they show Gina Ds kids club show. A video of Tyra Banks was a total idiot. Kelly Andrews as Ripsi was cute. Whats also Hilarius that Jewbacca gives Joel McHale (the host of the soup) the cup and when Chewbacca was in jail in Hollywood California. Jewbacca looks like a yourkish Chewbacca. Joel McHale's dog was cute in The Soup. This show is Hilarius you will like the characters there are so Hilarius except of Tyra Banks video those are stupid. This show is on E but not on schedule if you want to watch the clips on the soup look up you tube.

I do remember "Talk Soup" and the other incarnations of this show -- and many hosts have gone on to become household names. "Talk Soup", began lampooning they myriad of talk shows that were filling the airwaves, then just evolved into "The Soup". This incarnation, "The Soup" is lampooning talk shows and more on television and makes no doubt that this host will also go on to become a national name too.

What a good advancement of the series. Joe has come to make this program his own and it's silly, tragic and fun all at the same time. You chuckle, you laugh, you wonder - what the heck is on TV and in many cases you're so interested you find yourself wondering - what is the channel of the clip he's currently lampooning? The addition of the 'live' skits to enhance or further explain the show clips are funny. At one point in the series I started to wonder: What if Joe got the part from Ryan Seacrest on "American Idol" - boy would THAT show be even more entertaining! He's that engaging.

The clips chosen form all the television fare are just to "die" for. And that's the highlight of the show: how much TV has to offer - no matter where it comes from..and WHY?!?!??! Definitely a great show for lampooning our favorite past time of watching TV and what is on when we may be looking at something else more worthwhile.

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.

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.