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Web Soup is a Clip Show that aired on G4TV from 2009-2011, hosted by Chris Hardwick. It's a Spinoff of E!'s The Soup; rather than TV clips, a variety of clips taken from around the internet are snarked upon.
Common segments on this show include:
- "FIRSTIES!" — The first clip or two doesn't have a theme per se; it's just a term borrowed from the practice of racing to be the first to respond to a post on a message board, YouTube, etc.
- Mixed Nuts Sampler — A plethora of Groin Attack videos...usually self inflicted blows, at that. To drive the metaphor home, the title card is a parody of a Whitman's Sampler box with two walnuts, in which one of them splits apart.
- Please, Please, Please, For the Love of God, Don't Try This at Home — Someone does something really dangerous and/or stupid to themselves. Predictable consequences ensue.
- This Week in Fail — Someone tries to look cool on camera, and fails. Predictably and spectacularly.
- Operators Are Standing By — Strange local commercials that have found their way to the internet.
- Audience Participation — Twittershots, in which a clip is posted online for viewers to snark upon via Twitter; the best three make it to the show.
- Webcam Junction — Videos of people getting on their webcams and ranting about anything on their mind. Even if that anything is nothing at all.
- Web Soup Sports — Sports-related hijinks.
- That's Unincredible! — A video was intended to be awesome, but fell short.
- Is That Really A Thing? — Rule 36 in video form.
- WTF? — Something that "bizarre" doesn't even begin to describe.
- Please Stop the Music — Bad amateur music videos/performances.
- Why? — Somebody pulls a stupid stunt for reasons only known to them, and all we can ask is...Why?
- Things You Can't Un-See — A combination of Nausea- and/or Nightmare Fuel.
- Palate Cleanser — Immediately following Things You Can't Un-See, it counteracts the Nausea and Nightmares with pure sugary fare.
- THE GREATEST WEB VIDEO EVER! note — The last video of the show, which has elements from one or more of the tropes listed on this page.
Tropes used:
- Blah, Blah, Blah: Combined with Obligatory Joke; A girl gets hit in the face with a soccer ball. Chris' response is, "Blah, Blah, Blah, balls-to-the-face joke."
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Oh so much.
- Collective Groan: All over the place!
- Couch Gag: The operator in Operators Are Standing By and the hillbilly in Webcam Junction. In Season 3, the opening sequence has Chris doing something strange on his way to the stage — delivering a baby, making a sandwich for a bystander, etc. — and the "FIRSTIES!" intro has the announcer in different situations as well (such as a Bond Gun Barrel).
- Groin Attack: So many have appeared that in one episode, he consulted a special thesaurus to find fresh slang terms for the affected parts (he chose "Fraggle Rocks" and "Harry and the Hendersons").
- Incredibly Lame Pun: And you know Chris made one when he'll ask for a high-five, going, "Up top!"
- Kitschy Local Commercial: Mocked in Operators Are Standing By.
- Monster Clown: "So, last night I had this horrible, horrible nightmare—an army of evil clowns were dancing and singing, and they were slowly coming towards me; here, I TiVo'd it for you!"
- Mundane Made Awesome:
- Played for Laughs with THE GREATEST WEB VIDEO EVER! note
- Which included a fake viral video made by LoadingReadyRun one week, a great extra laugh for their fans.
- Operators Are Standing By: Name-dropped in an eponymous section about the strange local commercials that have found their way to the internet.
- Percussive Therapy: "No, Joel McHale! You're hosting a spin-off of my show!"
- Precious Puppies: Frequent subjects of the "Palate Cleanser" segment.
- Product Placement: At the end Hardwick reminds viewers to check out his budding Nerdist mini-empire of podcasts and blogs, and about future standup appearances.
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Recycled Set: The show began to use the E! News set in the third season, the first time a Soup series wasn't shot in front of a green screen in a broom closet. - Running Gag: Many.
- Several of Alison Brie's appearances have ended with her being offended by Chris' behavior and running off to tell Joel McHale, her Community co-star.
- Self-Deprecation: Hardwick is pretty much stuck on knowing most people still remember him only as the host of Singled Out and Shipmates eons ago and plays it for laughs.
- Shout-Out: Among others, the "WTF?" intro sequence is a reference to the men in the nice suit and the dog costume from The Shining.
- This Is Gonna Suck: "Hold on, true believers, because things are about to get weird..."
