The Soup (Seinfeld)

Not to be confused with another Seinfeld episode, "The Soup Nazi".

"The Soup"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 6 Episode 7
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Fred Stoller
Production code	608
Original air date	November 10, 1994 (1994-11-10)
Guest appearances
Stephen Hytner as Kenny Bania Tracy Kolis as Kelly Daniel Gerroll as Simon Linda Wallem as Hildy Lawrence Mandley as Manager Michael Kaplan as Waiter

"The Soup" is the 93rd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the seventh episode of the sixth season. It aired on November 10, 1994.

Stand-up comic Kenny Bania (played by Stephen Hytner) made his first appearance in the episode, in which he tries to cultivate friendship with Jerry by giving him an Armani suit. Meanwhile, George becomes uncomfortable at Monk's Café after he has an awkward first date with a waitress there, leading him and his circle of friends to try eating at one of their competitors.

Plot

Kelly, a waitress from Monk's Café, flirts with George. At Jerry's goading, he takes her out for a walk. George describes how he likes the word "manure", and Kelly makes a casual remark revealing that she has a boyfriend. Later, Jerry and George speculate whether she made that up to avoid George and whether the manure comment had anything to do with it. After having a kidney stone, Kramer decides to dump his refrigerator and eat only fresh foods. He starts dating Hildy, a waitress at Reggie's, and her appetite forces him to raid Jerry's apartment for food.

Kenny Bania comes into Monk's Diner and offers to give Jerry a brand-new Armani suit, since he's been working out and it no longer fits. To Jerry's dismay, Elaine, George, and Kramer don't read his mood and urge him to take it, praising Kenny's generosity. Bania is delighted by everyone's attention, and in an offhand way insists Jerry should buy him a meal in exchange. In a later scene, Jerry reluctantly meets Bania at Mendy's restaurant, but Bania astounds Jerry by saying, "I'm just going to have soup. Yeah, I'll save the meal for another time." Jerry counters, "Another time? What other time? No no, Bania, no. This is the dinner." Bania insists, "Soup's not a meal. I give you a brand-new Armani suit, and you won't even buy me a meal?" so Jerry acquiesces unhappily. Elaine has just returned from a trip to England with Mr. Pitt. While there, she met Simon, and has flown him back with her frequent-flyer miles. However, he becomes arrogant and doesn't have plans to return to England.

Bania joins George and Jerry at Monk's; this time he orders soup and a sandwich. Jerry insists his obligation is fulfilled, overruling Bania's protests that they didn't eat in a fancy restaurant. Jerry is so overcome with disgust for Bania's manipulation that he gives the Armani suit to Simon. George feels uncomfortable in Monk's, because the playful banter he enjoyed with Kelly before has been replaced on her part with a cold formality that borders on rudeness. After asking Hildy, Kramer informs George that Kelly doesn't have a boyfriend. George badgers Jerry and Elaine to go to Reggie's. They find Reggie's does not offer the meals they have grown accustomed to at Monk's.

At his apartment, Jerry is out of food for Hildy, who is in a bad mood because she got fired after Kramer made too many calls to her workplace. George decides to try the same trick with Kelly, reasoning that Kelly is the one who should have to leave because he had been going to Monk's far longer than she had been working there.

Back at Monk's, Kelly informs Jerry and Elaine that she isn't going to work there anymore. Her boss, fed up with calls, bans George from Monk's. Bania shows up and resentfully asks Jerry where the suit is. Simon arrives to announce that he has a job interview and is a shoo-in, thanks to the Armani suit, so he will be staying in the country indefinitely. This is not news Elaine wants to hear, so she calls, "Hey, Kenny. You still want to get that suit back? There it goes." Following her pointing finger, a heated Bania dashes outside to grab it from Simon. Hearing cries of "Unhand me!" and "Take it off!", and then the unmistakable sound of cloth ripping, Jerry and Elaine salute each other in triumph. Meanwhile, George dines alone at Reggie's.

Production

Background

Episode author Fred Stoller wrote in his book Maybe We'll Have You Back: The Life of a Perennial TV Guest Star that the plot — Jerry repays Kenny not by actually treating him to a meal, any meal, but rather by agreeing that Kenny will set the terms, which keep changing; Kenny orders soup and decides it's not "the meal", thereby setting a new term which might satisfy at "another time;" the lunch sandwich at the diner isn't good enough for the fine dinner he had dreamed of; he plots further terms and other times, until Kenny feels he's getting asymptotically close to the ideal dinner, which is really about having enough hanging-out time with Jerry as he wants — all of this was autobiographical. Like Kenny, Stoller started as a stand-up comic who got booed off stage as often as he won applause; he spent one year among the Seinfeld writing staff and was frightened all that time. "The office culture was built on intimidation and fear. You know your contract won't be renewed when people stop making eye contact with you, or opening their office doors to hear your ideas." Like Jerry, George, and Elaine, Kenny Bania chases unattainable dreams, which lead to a series of comedic misadventures.

Filming locations

The walk scene in Central Park was filmed at the CBS Radford lagoon, best known as the set for Gilligan's Island.

Casting

Steven Hytner became the love-to-hate-him lame comedian Bania after trying for other roles on the show. He recalled his audition to Rolling Stone:

I read for three or four different roles before getting Kenny Bania. The character description just said 'the most annoying guy in the world,' and I remember thinking, 'I don't really have a feel for this guy.' I remember hearing other people auditioning, and that's when it hit me: What if he's not annoying for the sake of it, what if he just so desperately wants to be Jerry's friend that he comes off annoying? So I made him an upbeat annoying guy. That seemed to make all the difference in the world. Jerry [Seinfeld] and Larry [David] were in the room and, as soon as I started doing that character, they just exploded in laughter. It was a relief. [...] When we were going to do the taping, it hit me that I was going to do this insanely broad character on the Number One show in the world. You don't want to bomb on the Number One show doing something way too big. Jerry kept saying, 'Please just trust it. It's going to be awesome.' I think that one of my first lines was, 'Yeah, I'm huge!' — and the audience just exploded. I'll always remember Jerry sitting in the booth at the diner and him looking up at me with this look on his eyes like 'I told you so.'"

Deleted scenes

Sequences which were filmed but deleted prior to broadcast include:

• George giving Kramer advice on asking Hildy out
• George confronting the manager at Reggie's in an attempt to persuade him to add their favorite meals to the menu
• Hildy breaking up with Kramer over his inability to keep her fed
• Kenny Bania revealing he asked Kelly out as soon as she gave her notice at Monk's, since he wanted to avoid precisely the situation George ended up in in the episode.

Reception

Kenny Bania became an enduringly popular oh-no-it's-HIM-again character in the Seinfeldverse. Rolling Stone placed him at #17 in their list of the "100 Best Seinfeld Characters," close behind the stars and such fan favorites as Newman, David Puddy, Frank Costanza, J. Peterman, and Dr. Tim Whatley. Rolling Stone notes that Bania wants Jerry Seinfeld's approval so badly he'll do anything to gain it, and "also had a knack for putting a positive spin on almost everything. ("The best, Jerry! The best!") But all these traits, including the comedian's litany of jokes about things that dissolve in milk, made Seinfeld loathe him."

The A.V. Club gave this episode a grade of A, with reviewer David Sims expressing the feeling that "after every so-so episode they tend to have a really great one... and in every case it's barely exaggerated but is still hysterically funny — more of a classic, old-school Seinfeld." In this case, the humor comes from an irksome-but-mostly-boring nemesis for Jerry. Sims enjoys taking aim at Kenny Bania, in his first appearance: "Hytner nails the character — he's someone not quite irritating enough for you to openly dislike and ignore," but the viewer forms a definite opinion, because Kenny "takes Jerry hostage by gifting him a suit he doesn't want and Jerry doesn't need and then demanding dinner with him. The stunt he pulls where he goes out to dinner with Jerry and then declines food (except for soup), saying he'll get that dinner from Jerry another time, is quite brazen and wonderfully pathetic [...] I tend to sympathize with Jerry the most when he's being misanthropic, and he's in fine form this episode. Kenny thinks dinner is Jerry treating him; Jerry thinks it's having to suffer through an hour of conversation — be it in a public park or at Buckingham Palace, he only wants to do it once." Sims concludes, "All in all, it's an episode that's the sum of its parts rather than a whole, and it works very well on those grounds."

External links

• "The Soup" at IMDb