Jerry and George become obsessed with a chef known as the Soup Nazi, who makes amazing soup but requires his customers to obey very strict rules. Elaine immediately hates the Soup Nazi, only to become entangled with him when Kramer gets an armoire to replace one he failed to protect from thieves. Jerry disgusts Elaine and George as he and his girlfriend engage in cutesy behaviour.
Written by: Spike Feresten
Directed by: Andy Ackerman
Another one of those cases where the show clicks together. The Soup Nazi is one of those things you couldn’t make up; it was based on real life soup vendor Al Yegani (who was initially deeply offended by the episode). This is a reflection of the show being so clear-eyed about what it is and what it’s about that it can find material like this; this was Spike Feresten’s first episode, and it came from casually mentioning Yegani to Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, who immediately clocked it as a great premise (the armoire and baby talk were also taken from Feresten’s real life). It works so well because it feels like the ultimate social etiquette moment; there’s a very specific, very clear set of social rules with a very clear and very valuable reward for following them.
I think it really says something that any viewer would immediately know Elaine is going to fuck this up; if there’s any one character who would respond with violent, righteous anger to being told what to do for thirty seconds, it’s Elaine, who cannot be inconvenienced for even a second without whining about it. Arguably, she’s a straight-up villain; an equivalent story in the modern day would follow her reputation being destroyed on social media for shutting down everyone’s favourite soup place. Conversely, we have George; it makes a lot of sense to me that this would bring out his meekness, given that, again, the rules are perfectly clear in black and white. Larry Thomas carries a lot of the work here as the Soup Nazi; he’s genuinely the most intimidating person you could find.
(And of course Jerry would choose soup over a relationship)
I also enjoy that this is one of the most effective examples of Seinfeld creating its own language that is still in use today. It would have to be somewhere between “No [x] for you!” and “Yadda yadda” in terms of Seinfeldisms that still see use; I can only assume how popular it was at the time. I often find my favourite comedies are ones that give us phrases and definitions (see: this entire site’s use of The Simpsons like a dictionary); it comes from the way funny phrases are married to real, useful emotions.
TOPICS O’ THE WEEK
- “You can’t eat this soup standing up, your knees buckle.”
- “This is what comes from living under a Nazi regime!”
- “I gotta focus. I’m shifting into soup mode.”
- “See, the way I figure it, it’s much easier to patch things up with Sheila than the Soup Nazi.”
- Profound moments with George Costanza: “I don’t think George has ever thought he was better than anybody.”
- Of course Kramer gets on with the Soup Nazi (“You are the only one who understands me.”). Enough that he even seems to break some of the rules.
- Great line delivery from Julia Louis-Dreyfus: “Don’t make me hurt you, Jerry.”
- Great little gag about the Soup Nazi moving to Argentina after everything goes down.
Biggest Laugh:
Next Week: “The Secret Code”