Standup comics swim in Soups

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on August 31st, 2009

We caught comedian Matt Iseman hosting Sports Soup on Versus this past weekend. It was the first time we’d watched. He’s very good at this thing. The show is hysterical and a carbon copy, format-wise, of The Soup (produced by the same folks, Comcast). That show’s host Joel McHale (whose background was in acting and improv, but who now tours as a standup).

There’s another sibling show– Web Soup— which is hosted by yet another comedian, Chris Hardwick. (A similar show, Tosh.0, debuted last year on Comedy Central and it’s hosted by Daniel Tosh, a comic.) (When you think about it, a comic is the perfect host for such a show. And some of the writes are standup comics.)

There are also two more such shows– Celebrity Soup, a British clone of The Soup, again, hosted by a comedian, Iain Lee, and The Dish. The Dish is not hosted by a comedian. (Judging from the few, fleeting times we’ve watched it, it isn’t nearly as good as the The Soup or Sport Soup… coincidence?)

These meta shows are proliferating. They draw their inspiration from Talk Soup, which ran from 1991 to 2002 and was hosted variously by Presented by Greg Kinnear, John Henson, Hal Sparks and Aisha Tyler, who, except for Kinnear, are all standup comics.

If we were able to compare the shows, we’d probably be shocked at how The Soup has evolved since it’s early days as Talk Soup. The show seems to have been slimmed down and become more sharply focused. It’s also become more risqué, the commentary more delightfully brutal, which is understandable, as the subject matter– talk shows, reality series, etc.– has taken full advantage of relaxed standards.

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