‘The Soup Nazi’ turns 25: How the ‘Seinfeld’ episode struck pop culture gold

In 1995, "Seinfeld" aired the sixth episode of its seventh season, titled "The Soup Nazi." At first, writer Spike Feresten thought it was a dud, based on a negative review from the only existing online "Seinfeld" fan forum.

“There was one entry and it said, ‘worst episode ever.’ All caps. That's all it said,” Feresten says. But the next day, everything changed.

“Jerry [Seinfeld] walked in and he goes, ‘boy, quite an episode last night,’” Feresten recalls. “He goes, ‘I don't usually get calls at this point, but I got a ton of calls from people saying how great this was.”

Larry Thomas memorably portrayed the title character and despite only six minutes of screen time, managed to nab an Emmy nomination.

“I got the Middle Eastern dialect from Omar Sharif [from Lawrence of Arabia],” Larry Thomas recalls of his audition.

During the taping, Thomas had a case of nerves, which was a blessing in disguise. “That actually worked to my favor,” he says, explaining that his stiff performance added to the character’s unyielding presence. And his first “no soup for you?” “Huge laughs,” he says.

Video Transcript

- He's secretly referred to as "The Soup Nazi."

- You know what they call him? Soup Nazi.

- Shh.

- He's not a Nazi. He just happens to be a little eccentric.

- But it's much easier to patch things up with Sheila, than with the Soup Nazi.

- I got it from the guy you so callously refer to as the "The Soup Nazi."

- Get out! He is a soup Nazi.

LARRY THOMAS: You're pushing your luck, little man. No soup for you! In my day job, I was a bail bondsman for 15 years or so. But yes, auditioning for Seinfeld, season seven. They were long since the hottest show on TV. It was big.

SPIKE FERESTEN: The story of the soup Nazi wasn't really a pitch. It was a moment after I had pitched a bunch of other ideas that were kind of middling ideas, and I could tell that Larry and Jerry didn't like those ideas. And they said, what's going on in New York?

And I was so grateful to have a little detour to not talk about these ideas I had just pitched, I said, oh you know, it's the same. There's this weird soup guy we used to go to called the soup Nazi and they started laughing. They go the soup Nazi? Why do they call him the soup Nazi?

Because he's kind of like a Nazi. He's just mean to everybody, but the soup is so good.

LARRY THOMAS: I got the Middle Eastern dialect from Omar Sharif. I had Lawrence of Arabia on videotape. So I put it in and there was this great scene in the desert where he said [IN MIDDLE EASTERN ACCENT] "You're drifting, Lawrence. Stop drifting. Be warned."

- Be warned. You were drifting.

LARRY THOMAS: And I thought, that's perfect for a jerk called the soup Nazi. Right? I had an old army shirt from the 70s actually, and some green pants. And I put that on, and I had about three days beard growth.

And my wife she goes, "One more thing." And she gets a beret, and she puts the beret on. Of course, we both stood there looking in the mirror because this was 1995 and I looked exactly like Saddam Hussein.

SPIKE FERESTEN: And with respect to Larry, he looked like the guy. When he walked in, I went oh my God. That's, that's Al Yeganeh. And Larry is coming in, and making us laugh right off the bat by playing like angry. I go, that's the guy.

That's the only speed I've seen on this guy's bike. The real guy is angry. And Larry was pushing Richard Libertini who's a great actor and you know, we argued a little bit with Larry. And Larry gave in, and the rest is Larry Thomas history.

- No soup for you!

SPIKE FERESTEN: He was kind of a mean guy. But on that day he said, "No soup for you." I'm so bewildered, like I don't understand. I've got money. You're selling stuff. I do know, "No soup for you," is what he said to me that first day. And of course in the first scene was the line "no soup for you".

I mean really the process was I would take the script as far as I could take it, and then Larry and Jerry would pretty much spin it into gold. That's how it worked. You don't quite know what you're writing that's really going to pop. And this is a perfect example of it.

LARRY THOMAS: All of the laughs happened in all the right places, so I felt really good about that night. The nervousness was there. Technically, it really helped me because I was way too nervous to be loose.

You know what I mean. I was stiff as a board. But that actually worked technically, to my favor. My first "no soup for you" got huge laughs. And so I immediately started to feel good.

- There was an indication that we had something special and I was just talking to Jerry about this yesterday. The day we shot it was the day the OJ trial verdict came in. And we went into the studio.

It's all anybody could talk about. And as a new writer, I was just like once again, I think I'm through. The episode starts shooting and the audience started going crazy and laughing harder than I had heard them laugh in previous episodes.

LARRY THOMAS: And all of a sudden Larry David came by me as the audience was all leaving and stuff. And he just said, don't get out of costume. I got two things I want to redo. Number one, you know when Julia says whoo ah, whoo ah. Originally I just went "no soup for you".

He goes, I want you to go, "Very good. Very good. You know something? No soup for you!" And then Larry goes, and there's just one other thing. I don't want you to say to the Spanish guy, instead of saying, "unacceptable" I want you to say, "Adios, muchacho."

And then someone had said to Larry, you know the actor's gone. And Larry goes, oh. OK, well I'll stand in. So technically, what you're seeing is an earlier shot of the actor saying, "I'm part Spanish." But when you see me saying, "Adios muchacho", what I'm really responding to is Larry David saying, "I'm part Spanish."

So I got to act with Larry David very early. Adios muchacho.

SPIKE FERESTEN: The phrase soup Nazi would not be something I think you could find in a sitcom in 2020.

LARRY THOMAS: I do fear that it wouldn't be acceptable today. And it kind of breaks my heart.

SPIKE FERESTEN: I think with all that's going on in the world, it's just a different world right now. And it's evocative of something we're all upset about. So it wouldn't work.

LARRY THOMAS: In comedy, I know one thing is that you can't be politically afraid of anything that could be funny. It was just a bunch of Jewish guys joking about an overly strict character. So strict, that they call him a Nazi. And it's never been anything more than that. And it never should be anything more than that.

- You just cost yourself a soup.

- How dare you? Come on Jerry, we're leaving.

SPIKE FERESTEN: I didn't feel the episode was special. I was kind of embarrassed by it in the beginning. But I love that Larry is out there doing that, it really makes me laugh. It really tickles me.

And I know deep down that when I die, no matter what I do from that moment on, it's going to say, "the guy who wrote The Soup Nazi" on my gravestone. That's it.

- Who wants soup? Next. Speak! [MUSIC PLAYING]