The Soup Nazi

"The Soup Nazi" is 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. (compare Grammar Nazi)^[1]

Plot

Jerry, George and Elaine patronize a new soup stand Kramer has been praising; its owner is referred to as the "Soup Nazi," due to his temperament and insistence on a strict manner of behavior while purchasing an order. Jerry explains the procedure for purchasing, which George accepts but Elaine rejects. En route, Elaine notices a sidewalk furniture dealer with an armoire for sale and decides to stop and purchase it. However, when she returns with it to her building, the building superintendent informs her that moving items inside is prohibited on Sundays.

When Jerry and George arrive at the soup stand, George follows the procedure but notices that no free bread was included with his purchase. Jerry instructs him to ignore it, but George requests bread and is told its price is $2.00. When George mentions the free bread that customers before him received, he is then informed that the price increased to $3.00. George's continued protest is met with a harsh "No soup for you!" from the Soup Nazi, followed by the cashier immediately confiscating his purchase and brusquely refunding his payment.

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 protests the Soup Nazi's angry objection to her kissing of Jerry in the line of customers, the Soup Nazi expels her from the stand and Jerry feigns ignorance of her to proceed with a soup purchase. When George learns about Jerry's decision, George admits his annoyance with their "baby talk" romantic behavior to Jerry. Jerry claims to have behaved facetiously with Sheila at the soup stand and vows to redeem himself. When George learns about Jerry's decision, he begins to behave similarly with Susan to express his disgust. Susan misinterprets George's intentions and believes that he is finally enjoying publicly displaying his affections, continuing to behave as such after Jerry again ends his relationship with Sheila.

Elaine, still awaiting the chance to move her new armoire upstairs, asks Kramer to monitor the piece of furniture on the street overnight. When he arrives, she visits the soup stand to purchase soup for him. While she is away, some "street toughs" intimidate Kramer, when he confronts them, 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 imposes upon her a one-year soup-purchasing ban. She then returns to her building to find Kramer, without the armoire, who informs her of its theft.

Later, Kramer, who has befriended the Soup Nazi, tells him the incident 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 would have never provided 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, with recipes in hand, and declares that she will devastate his business by exposing the recipes. Her glee matches his in the way that he angered her before. Feeling ruined, the Soup Nazi decides to close the business and emigrate 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."^[2]

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.^[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.^[4]

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.^[5][6][7]

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!"^[8]

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.^[9] Yeganeh has stated on numerous occasions that he is very offended by the "Soup Nazi" moniker.^[10]

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.^[11]

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

Advertising

Like Jackie Chiles, the Soup Nazi character (played by Thomas) has appeared in commercials after the end of the series.

• In an advertisement by the corporate lobbying group Center for Consumer Freedom, he denies food to people he considers to be too fat.
• 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!".
• 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.^[12][13] Following their refusal to sell the rifles, Serbu had T-shirts printed with an image of the The Soup Nazi character with the words "No Serbu For You".^[12] Thomas, a gun control advocate, contacted Facebook and the T-shirt printers to have the shirts removed.^[12] Serbu has since removed the image of Thomas and replaced it with one of their founder Mark Serbu.^[14]

In popular culture

• 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...'"
• Seinfeld: A XXX Parody, a 2009 porn parody of Seinfeld, is a spoof of "The Soup Nazi".^[15] In it, the Nazi character is named "The Porn Nazi" and is played by Evan Stone.
• Rapper Wale used lines from the episode as an introduction and outro to his song "The Soup" on his 2010 mixtape More About Nothing. He acts as the Soup Nazi and uses the catchphrase "No soup for you!"
• The Ben 10: Alien Force episode "The Gauntlet", Ben brings juice for Kevin and Gwen. Kevin dismissively tells him to go away, so Ben sets the drinks down, but on second thought grabs Kevin's drink and says, "No juice for you!" is a parody and reference to a Seinfeld's line, where the soup chef's catchphrase is "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 the sitcom Arrested Development, the crooked housing entrepreneur George Bluth Sr. is charged with signing a development deal with Saddam Hussein, despite the embargo against Iraq. Bluth claims that he acted in good faith, mistakenly believing that Hussein was Larry Thomas because of his resemblance to the Soup Nazi. This get referenced in a later episode, where Thomas appears in the role as a political decoy for Saddam Hussein who has lost his job because of the American invasion of Iraq.
• In 2011's NBA Jam: On-Fire Edition, the tagline "No soup for you!" can be purchased as a reward for the player's card.

In-person promotions

• Larry Thomas has used the character to promote soup kitchens for the homeless.^[16]
• In July 2012, the "Seinfeld Food Truck" embarked on an eight-stop United States tour. The truck, driven by Larry Thomas, handed out free soup along with other Seinfeld related food items: Snapple, Twix, Junior Mints, black and white cookies and muffin tops.^[17]

Other

• The episode inspired an actual soup chain, "Soup Nutsy", which opened in 1996 in New York City. Though it had no official connection to, or endorsement from, Seinfeld or its creators, it included specific Seinfeld references such as describing two of its soups as "Jerry's Favorite" and "Kramer's Favorite", respectively.^[18] In 1997 it was bought by Franchise Concepts.^[19] A few of its locations remain in Toronto, Ontario in Canada.^[20]
• 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".^[21]

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.^[22]

References

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

Seinfeld episodes Season 1 "The Seinfeld Chronicles" "The Stake Out" "The Robbery" "Male Unbonding" "The Stock Tip" Season 2 "The Ex-Girlfriend" "The Pony Remark" "The Jacket" "The Phone Message" "The Apartment" "The Statue" "The Revenge" "The Heart Attack" "The Deal" "The Baby Shower" "The Chinese Restaurant" "The Busboy" Season 3 "The Note" "The Truth" "The Pen" "The Dog" "The Library" "The Parking Garage" "The Cafe" "The Tape" "The Nose Job" "The Stranded" "The Alternate Side" "The Red Dot" "The Subway" "The Pez Dispenser" "The Suicide" "The Fix-Up" "The Boyfriend" "The Limo" "The Good Samaritan" "The Letter" "The Parking Space" "The Keys" Season 4 "The Trip" "The Pitch" "The Ticket" "The Wallet" "The Watch" "The Bubble Boy" "The Cheever Letters" "The Opera" "The Virgin" "The Contest" "The Airport" "The Pick" "The Movie" "The Visa" "The Shoes" "The Outing" "The Old Man" "The Implant" "The Junior Mint" "The Smelly Car" "The Handicap Spot" "The Pilot" Season 5 "The Mango" "The Puffy Shirt" "The Glasses" "The Sniffing Accountant" "The Bris" "The Lip Reader" "The Non-Fat Yogurt" "The Barber" "The Masseuse" "The Cigar Store Indian" "The Conversion" "The Stall" "The Dinner Party" "The Marine Biologist" "The Pie" "The Stand In" "The Wife" "The Raincoats" "The Fire" "The Hamptons" "The Opposite" Season 6 "The Chaperone" "The Big Salad" "The Pledge Drive" "The Chinese Woman" "The Couch" "The Gymnast" "The Soup" "The Mom & Pop Store" "The Secretary" "The Race" "The Switch" "The Label Maker" "The Scofflaw" "The Highlights of 100" "The Beard" "The Kiss Hello" "The Doorman" "The Jimmy" "The Doodle" "The Fusilli Jerry" "The Diplomat's Club" "The Face Painter" "The Understudy" Season 7 "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" "The Shower Head" "The Doll" "The Friar's Club" "The Wig Master" "The Calzone" "The Bottle Deposit" "The Wait Out" "The Invitations" Season 8 "The Foundation" "The Soul Mate" "The Bizarro Jerry" "The Little Kicks" "The Package" "The Fatigues" "The Checks" "The Chicken Roaster" "The Abstinence" "The Andrea Doria" "The Little Jerry" "The Money" "The Comeback" "The Van Buren Boys" "The Susie" "The Pothole" "The English Patient" "The Nap" "The Yada Yada" "The Millennium" "The Muffin Tops" "The Summer of George" Season 9 "The Butter Shave" "The Voice" "The Serenity Now" "The Blood" "The Junk Mail" "The Merv Griffin Show" "The Slicer" "The Betrayal" "The Apology" "The Strike" "The Dealership" "The Reverse Peephole" "The Cartoon" "The Strong Box" "The Wizard" "The Burning" "The Bookstore" "The Frogger" "The Maid" "The Puerto Rican Day" "The Chronicle" "The Finale" Indicates two-part episode