*Seinfeld Voice* What's the Deal with The Soup Nazi?
"Is that lima bean? Never been a big fan."
Howdy, it’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Grab yourself a big pot, because we’re dishing out some soup.
In the Seinfeld episode “The Soup Nazi,” the titular character only says the phrase “No Soup for You” twice.
Seinfeld ended in 1998, and it’s still one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. It introduced quite a bit into the social lexicon, as well.
You’ve perhaps heard someone utter words or phrases like “yada yada yada,” “serenity now,” “sponge-worthy,” “shrinkage,” “Festivus,” or, one of my personal favorites, “the jerk store.”
That last one is from an episode called “The Comeback,” where George believes he has the perfect response to a snide remark. Spoiler: He doesn’t.
I own an Homage shirt that has George’s line on it: “The jerk store called. They’re running out of you.” Once I was wearing it while grocery shopping, and a girl who was probably eight years old told me she liked my shirt. I have no idea if she’s familiar with Seinfeld, but I like to think she was.
Another common Seinfeld-ism is “no soup for you!” from the 1995 episode “The Soup Nazi.” This line is uttered by Larry Thomas, who’s playing the title character, Yev Kassem. The Soup Nazi character was inspired by Al Yeganeh, who owned a soup shop in New York City called Soup Kitchen International, and later, The Original Soupman.
As you may surmise, Yeganeh was none too pleased about his portrayal. Spike Feresten, the writer of the episode, recounted when Jerry Seinfeld and several crew members visited Soup Kitchen International weeks after the episode aired and received a profanity-filled tirade where Yeganeh said the show “ruined” his business and wanted an apology. Per Fereseten, Seinfeld offered “the most sarcastic apology I’ve ever seen anyone give,” and the group received the traditional “no soup for you!” heave-ho.
Thomas did not know about Yeganeh, and modeled his portrayal after Omar Sharif’s accent in Lawrence of Arabia. Thomas earned about $2,600 for his portrayal in “The Soup Nazi,” and he also was paid for appearing in the series finale. At the time, he continued side hustling as an actor and bail bondsman (I’ll let you choose which was the main job and which was the hustle).
However, Thomas has since made a ton of money from embodying the character that propelled “no soup for you!” into pop culture legacy status. Thomas, in full Soup Nazi garb, has signed autographs, attended events, done commercials, and recorded videos on platforms like Cameo.
Yet, if you peruse the episode’s script, “no soup for you!” only gets uttered twice. The first time is when George wonders aloud why he didn’t get any bread alongside his crab bisque.
On the plus side, George gets some redemption after his initial screwup.
The second is when Elaine, who is just being all kinds of rambunctious, says the Soup Nazi bares a striking resemblance to Al Pacino. As she’s letting out a “hoo-ah,” she receives the classic line.
Look at how similar these thumbnails are! Thomas really hit a good vibe here.
And that’s all! Feels like it should be a lot more frequent, doesn’t it?
Such is the power of Seinfeld. Even a line someone barely says has a staying power of nearly three decades and counting.
That warms me up inside, like a nice bowl of mulligatawny.