Growing up, I was a huge fan of Talk Soup, particularly the John Henson era, so needless to say, I was excited when it was announced that a reboot was coming back and I ultimately found the show's host, Joel McHale, as charismatic and funny.
At first, the humor was shaky and inconsistent, as if it was trying too hard to be funny (with the "Michael Jackson Clue" board game, where you could tell Joel's nervousness and uncertainty in the skit). However, it was around late 2005 when the show began to grow the beard as it stopped trying to force the jokes and focused on reality shows like Breaking Bonaduce, talk shows like Tyra and pointed out the unintentional Ho Yay between Harry and Ron in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ("Don't ask, don't spell"). Making it better was the introduction of original characters (no, not thoseoriginal characters) like Mankini, the DestructibleCheerleader, the Dancing Maxipad and Joel's notorious "rivalry" with Ryan Seacrest and his poorly synched prop gun (usually used on Mankini).
A great show that would have been better if it weren't on E!
Growing up, I was a huge fan of Talk Soup, particularly the John Henson era, so needless to say, I was excited when it was announced that a reboot was coming back and I ultimately found the show's host, Joel McHale, as charismatic and funny.
At first, the humor was shaky and inconsistent, as if it was trying too hard to be funny (with the "Michael Jackson Clue" board game, where you could tell Joel's nervousness and uncertainty in the skit). However, it was around late 2005 when the show began to grow the beard as it stopped trying to force the jokes and focused on reality shows like Breaking Bonaduce, talk shows like Tyra and pointed out the unintentional Ho Yay between Harry and Ron in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ("Don't ask, don't spell"). Making it better was the introduction of original characters (no, not those original characters) like Mankini, the Destructible Cheerleader, the Dancing Maxipad and Joel's notorious "rivalry" with Ryan Seacrest and his poorly synched prop gun (usually used on Mankini).
That being said, the show also had a sense of shallowness due to being on E!. The Soup would "badmouth" fellow E! shows like The Kardashians while still giving publicity to them and also shoehorn in unnecessary take thats when they felt like it, be it towards fellow Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland (who built a rather respectable career) and Michelle Williams for apparently being less "attractive" than Beyoncé or towards accomplished drummer Rick Allen of Def Leppard due to his disability (reprehensible).
I still miss this show. It was one of the best things the channel had on in years.