History Series / TheSoup

* ''E! Latin America'' has its own Spanish version of the show now aptly named ''La Sopa'' (which is Spanish for ''The Soup''), hosted by Mexican comedian (and ex-Big Brother VIP participant) Eduardo Videgaray. It's pretty much the same show and same format but instead focused on Latin American shows like Mexican soap operas. Two other versions of the show, one for the Venezuelan feed hosted by comedian Led Varela, and another for the Colombian feed, hosted by Alejandro Riaño, were premiered on July 2013.

* ChromaKey: The main "set" for each show. As such the show can also come from other exotic locales when Joel has another project to do such as...St. Louis (when he was shooting ''The Informant!''), Austin, Texas (filming ''SpyKids 4'' at Creator/RobertRodriguez's greenscreen complex) and NewYorkCity (doing press and upfronts for ''Series/{{Community}}''). However these shows can be notable for being the least funny due to the regular crew not being in tow, Joel only able to get writer and director input via Skype and basically winging it alone, and a different sound and tenor to the audience, who is usually just either rounded up at random or in the St. Louis case, was taped at a Creator/{{PBS}} station with a crowd of confused station employees and donating members who wondered why a guy was making Creator/ParisHilton jokes in front of a green screen instead of [[CookingShow cooking]] or teaching adults how to get their GED.

*** Counting the eleven years of Talk Soup, this was pretty much the same, [[note]]including when they went from a four day, half-hour daily and a one hour weekly to a half hour weekly format, to which it remains.[[/note]] the longest stretch of time without new episodes was between the mid-2002 sudden cancellation and the mid-2004 premiere of Joel's first episode.

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Pretty much anyone who guests on the show. Standing next to the six and a half foot tall Joel makes most guests look really short. It doesn't help when they ''are'' really short and appear childlike next to [[Series/{{Community}} Frankenstein Ryan Seacrest]].

** Currently, Wendy Williams (with a little bit of UST). Also New York anchor Greg Kelly of WNYW, who is pretty much a weekly staple of ''Chat Stew'' for his hate of fluff and the trappings of most local newscasts.

** In the weeks following the news that ''Series/{{Community}}'' was being put on hiatus, Joel's fellow cast-members from that show would appear to basically [[ProductPlacement lambast Joel for not using his platform to promote the show]] and do little skits. This culminated in a mass group appearance from them where we learned that the entire cast of ''Series/{{Community}}'' apparently doesn't exist and are [[MindScrew just figments of Joel's imagination]] to help him cope with the fact that he only works at ''E!''.

* TakeThat: Basically the show's premise in regard to all bad television. Also their own audience, as they constantly jab at their own network and programming, and the kinds of people who would watch E!

* {{Kayfabe}}: Joel's frequent mocking of "reality" TV shows like ''TheHills'' or ''Brooke Knows Best''.

** They also will have several Running Gags that last for a month or two, usually involving a person from a clip photoshopped to pop up on screen and say a line. These have included ''Series/AmericanIdol'' contestant Danny Noriega cattily saying "Some people weren't ''liking it''!" and Spencer Pratt from ''TheHills'' saying (with {{narm}}ful bad acting) "That's the problem..." in a hushed voice, a clip of Whitney Houston from her reality show yelling "KISS MY ASS!" and a clip of Kate Gosselin wearing a goofy pink hat with a popcorn bowl on top calling in a high pitched voice "COME AND GET YER POP-CORN!" The current favorite seems to be a drunk woman saying "dunk-a doo ball". These are usually retired so that they don't get too old, although the more popular ones will often resurface after a bit.

** Killing the blond girl at the end of every season finale of ''TheHills''.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Joel constantly reminds the audience that psychics are frauds, ghosts aren't real, and Bigfoot doesn't exist.

** CampGay: What the Gay Shows segment covers.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[TheOtherRainforest Pacific Northwesterners]] will recognize Joel [=McHale=] from his ''Series/AlmostLive'' days.

** During a live-air run in 2014, lampshading and pointing out when they screw up.

* DuelingShows:

** Currently with ''The Wil Wheaton Project'', which they've already taken a few jabs at.

** Ryan Seacrest's height and having too many jobs is also a subject of repeated gags.

* ViewersAreGoldfish: For a time the exact same episode ran twice in an hour on Friday nights, likely due to E! unable to find a companion show for it to follow (yet, many people happily sat and watch it twice), but now the equally snarky ''Joan Rivers' Fashion Police'' has established itself as "[[IncrediblyLamePun The Sandwich]]" to ''The Soup''.

** And now with Creator/{{NBC}} and {{Comcast}} merged, it has started with a description of anal alcohol intake from ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' turned into a fake ''TheMoreYouKnow'' {{P|ublicServiceAnnouncement}}SA.

** Joel thinking that ''Gay [=USA=]'' is a Japanese show called "''Gayusa''".

** "It's Reality Show Clip Time!" Joel will occasionally play with this one a bit. Variations on this include Joel whispering it, silently mouthing it, just letting out one long yell or random excited gibberish, and "[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983 By the power of Greyskull, I have the power!]]"

** "Let's Take Some E!"

** Current TV aired a similar show called infoMania, which covers the week in pop culture with segments that are very similar to The Soup's.

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Pretty much anyone who guests on the show. Standing next to the six and a half foot tall Joel makes most guests look really short. It doesn't help when they ''are'' reall short and appear childlike next to [[Series/{{Community}} Frankenstein Ryan Seacrest]].

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Pretty much anyone who guests on the show. Standing next to the six and a half foot tall Joel makes most guests look really short. It doesn't help when they ''are'' reall short and appear childlike next to {{Series/{{Community}} Frankenstein Ryan Seacrest}}.

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Pretty much anyone who guests on the show. Standing next to the six and a half foot tall Joel makes most guests look really short. It doesn't help when they ''are'' reall short and appear childlike next to {{Series/COmmunity Frankenstein Ryan Seacrest}}.

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Pretty much anyone who guests on the show. Standing next to the six and a half foot tall Joel makes most guests look really short. It doesn't help when they ''are'' reall short and appear childlike next to {{Series/Community Frankenstein Ryan Seacrest}}.

* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: Pretty much anyone who guests on the show. Standing next to the six and a half foot tall Joel makes most guests look really short. It doesn't help when they ''are'' reall short and appear childlike next to [[Series/Community Frankenstein Ryan Seacrest]].

* And in 2009 G4 got into the act with ''WebSoup'' hosted by Chris Hardwick, which takes on online videos -- segments include "OperatorsAreStandingBy", "This Week in Fail", "Please Please Please For The Love Of God DontTryThisAtHome", and "The Greatest Web Video Ever [[note]]this week[[/note]]". Was the first ''Soup'' show with their third season to have an actual physical set with screens and backgrounds, though it's just the E! News set with a studio audience stuck where Ryan Seacrest usually stands. The program was ended after its third season when Hardwick departed G4 to focus on projects for Nerdist, his online network of podcast and internet video programming.

** The spinoff ''Web Soup'' has its own dueling show in ComedyCentral's ''Series/{{Tosh0}}'' Which in turn isn't a fair fight; ''WebSoup'' airs on G4 which is usually on a higher digital-only tier than basic-cable Comedy Central.

--->'''Donald Glover:''' [[ShoutOut It's like]] ''FightClub'', only you're too much of a pussy to actually fight somebody.

* ChromaKey: The main "set" for each show. As such the show can also come from other exotic locales when Joel has another project to do such as...St. Louis (when he was shooting ''The Informant!''), Austin, Texas (filming ''SpyKids 4'' at RobertRodriguez's greenscreen complex) and NewYorkCity (doing press and upfronts for ''Series/{{Community}}''). However these shows can be notable for being the least funny due to the regular crew not being in tow, Joel only able to get writer and director input via Skype and basically winging it alone, and a different sound and tenor to the audience, who is usually just either rounded up at random or in the St. Louis case, was taped at a Creator/{{PBS}} station with a crowd of confused station employees and donating members who wondered why a guy was making Creator/ParisHilton jokes in front of a green screen instead of [[CookingShow cooking]] or teaching adults how to get their GED.

** A recent episode featured a two-minute long skit celebrating the fact that standards and practices were allowing them to say "wet muff" and proceeded to say it about 117 times.