| rdfs:comment | - Statler and Waldorf appeared on the program on March 21, 2012. The pair heckled McHale at multiple times throughout the program. Statler and Waldorf also appeared in a web-exclusive spoof of The Soup. The famous Muppets duo replace McHale as host and make quips and commentary on a selection of old-time clips.
- The Soup on E!: They watch TV, so you don't have to. First, there was Talk Soup with Greg Kinnear (and various other hosts after him: John Henson, Hal Sparks, and Aisha Tyler), which mainly focused on making fun of talk shows. That ended in 2002 when most of the companies airing the talk shows stopped providing clips. Apparently, they thought it was giving them a bad name. These shows were unsurprisingly gone after a couple of years. Three spinoffs have been launched on the majority of Comcast's other cable channels since 2008:
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| abstract | - The Soup on E!: They watch TV, so you don't have to. First, there was Talk Soup with Greg Kinnear (and various other hosts after him: John Henson, Hal Sparks, and Aisha Tyler), which mainly focused on making fun of talk shows. That ended in 2002 when most of the companies airing the talk shows stopped providing clips. Apparently, they thought it was giving them a bad name. These shows were unsurprisingly gone after a couple of years. Then, in 2004, E! aired The What The? Awards which was quickly changed to The Soup with host Joel McHale. They even acknowledge the original Talk Soup with the segment "Chat Stew". Regular characters on The Soup include Mankini (a man wearing a bikini), a dancing maxipad, two Star Wars nerds, and Lou the chihuahua. Regular segments include "Chicks, Man", "Reality Show Clip Time!", "Let's Take Some E!", "Oprah's Vajayjay", "Gay Shows" and the "Clip of the Week", the last of which, is the only true remaining bit from Talk Soup. It doesn't take itself too at all seriously. Three spinoffs have been launched on the majority of Comcast's other cable channels since 2008:
* E! sister channel Style had The Dish, hosted by Danielle Fishel, that gave special attention to the feminine side of pop culture: fashion, weddings, interior design, etc. Segments included "Clip Closet", "Daylight Cravings", "Here Come the Brides", and a closing "Freak of the Week". Canceled in March 2011, though -- likely due to ratings issues and the NBC/Comcast merger making it verboten for Style to make fun of Bravo and Oxygen's programming now that they're all sister networks.
* Sports channel Versus had Sports Soup, hosted by Matt Iseman from Clean House. Segments included "The Great Outdoors", "Covering the Coverage", and "5 Star Clip". The Woobie of the franchise because of Versus pre-empting it often due to sports coverage and ESPN and the regional sports networks clamping down on fair use of their clips in a comedic sense; depended towards the end more on themed 'blooper' shows and cameos from sports celebrities such as Chad Ochocinco. Done after January 2011 as a result of NBC Sports taking control and rebranding Versus as a serious ESPN competitor under the new name of NBC Sports Network. (Sister network Golf Channel never bothered with a Soup spin-off since they're in Orlando far away from Los Angeles, and golf is just plain Serious Business.)
* And in 2009 G4 got into the act with Web Soup hosted by Chris Hardwick, which takes on online videos -- segments include "Operators Are Standing By", "This Week in Fail", "Please Please Please For The Love Of God Don't Try This At Home", and "The Greatest Web Video Ever ". 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. Viewers in the UK who can't view the show (which should be very few of you, considering this show goes out on E! UK as well), should consider it to be a cattier version of Harry Hills TV Burp. Or Americans who can't view the show might think of it as Mystery Science Theater 3000 meets Hollywood gossip.
- Statler and Waldorf appeared on the program on March 21, 2012. The pair heckled McHale at multiple times throughout the program. Statler and Waldorf also appeared in a web-exclusive spoof of The Soup. The famous Muppets duo replace McHale as host and make quips and commentary on a selection of old-time clips.
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