A favorite pastime for my friends and I, is to make fun of television celebrities, oh how we wish that there was a job where we could do this full time, luckily there is – The Soup, but that job seems to be taken by the witty sarcastic Joel McHale and we don’t mind one little bit.
The Soup, which began its life as Talk Soup in 1991 has had a slew of hosts starting with Greg Kinnear who won an Emmy in 1995 for his work but left soon after to pursue acting. While there were a number of hosts after he left, including Aisha Tyler, and John Henson, it wasn’t until 2004 when Joel McHale came on board that the show was resurrected to it’s now cult hit status.
While it started with the new name the “What The…? Awards†it was quickly renamed “The Soup†– and thank goodness for that. Its current name is not only much easier to remember but recognizes its roots of the original Talk Soup.
Since Joel McHale resurrected the show his quips and jokes have become popular not only with viewers but also has pushed McHale into the spotlight and Hollywood Executives are taking notice.
And since McHale’s dreams are to follow in the footsteps of former host Kinnear and make movies, it looks like he’ll get his wish when he stars alongside Matt Damon and Scott Bakula in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming film The Informant due to be released late 2009.
The Soup has a number of popular segments including Chat Stew, Chicks Man, Reality Show Clip Time, and Let’s Take Some E! which focus of different television genres.
Characters also feature prominently in the show with Mankini, Matt the Intern, the Star Wars nerds and the dancing maxipad favorites with viewers. More recently new character Spaghetti Cat has proven popular with whole websites being dedicated to him (or is it her? – I can never tell with spaghetti cats).
Additionally Lou the Chihuahua is often shown in various segments of the show. Lou belongs to executive producer Edward Boyd, and not McHale as some people assume.
The Soup also often produce special episodes of its content under the header “The Soup Presents†which focus on themed clips including popular favorites, with end of year specials featuring the best clips of that year in it’s Clipdown episodes.
There is no doubt for fans that Joel McHale did save The Soup but once his movie career takes off and he leaves to pursue acting it’s anyone’s guess what will happen with the show.
Tags: joel mchale the soup
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