Feature

Soup Nazi — Exploitation or Preservation?

by Dalya Goldberger

"No soup for you!"
—Soup Nazi, Episode 93, Seinfeld

If you live in North America, you have probably heard of the Soup Nazi — that disagreeable and dictatorial restauranteur who was popularized in episodes of the television sitcom Seinfeld. In fact, soup nazi, and other variations such as feminazi, parking nazi, fashion nazi, and traffic nazi are becoming part of a North American lexicon — a comic way of referring to overzealous individuals in every sphere of life. While many embrace the term, others are uneasy about the casual use of "nazi" and fear that it trivializes violence and dilutes our collective memory of the atrocities of World War II. But should we be offended or is the acceptance — and prevalence — of the term just a reflection of our underlying awareness of the horrific events that gave birth to the metaphor? Is our laughter an unintentional and indirect way of preserving these terrible memories?

Does Soup Nazi Exploit?

Until recently, the word "Nazi" was spelled with a capital "N" and was inseparable from images of death camps, swastikas, and Adolph Hitler. Today, in situations other than those that must impart the strictest sense of the word, "nazi" is spelled with a lower case "n," suggesting a decline in the term’s importance and seriousness. Its meaning has also become more loosely associated with fanatical individuals. Many Jewish organizations, including the Canadian Jewish Congress, feel that watering down the term "Nazi" is dangerous. The primary concern is that once the word is no longer associated solely with its original meaning (compounded by the passage of time) the ghastly events of the Second World War will be stamped out of our collective memory, rendering their lessons impotent.

Nancy Weston Ph.D. of St. Cloud State University echoes this concern when she says that the Holocaust is "exploited and desecrated by commercial representations" (retrieved 5 July 2000 from "How Can We Remember.") Terms such as soup nazi make it difficult to remember historical events. The logic is that the more nazi is associated with a television character, the more it will lose its association with Nazism and the Second World War.

Why Do We Laugh?

While the term offends some people, many others have embraced its humour and expanded it to other spheres. But, if soup nazi alludes to such a violent time in our history, why is it so funny?

The comic effect of soup nazi can be explained by our postmodern condition at the end of the 20th century. Characterized by irony and a loss of innocence, postmodernism provides an environment (perhaps the only one) in which such a metaphor can thrive. In addition, social mores of the nineties gave us permission to laugh at individuals who made fun of themselves (their religion, race, culture, or history), but not at those who pointed fingers at others. Because Jerry Seinfeld is Jewish, we are permitted to laugh at the term soup nazi and make it our own.

Ironic Parody

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary defines irony as "the expression of meaning using language that normally expresses the opposite; a discrepancy between the expected and the actual state of affairs." The soup nazi metaphor is humorous because it is ironic; it juxtaposes the horrific imagery of the Holocaust against that of a dictatorial soup restauranteur. Because we know that the TV soup-slinger is hardly a figure worthy of the term, we find it funny. (The episode in which Jerry Seinfeld is called an anti-dentite is another similar example of ironic parody.)

Poet and critic David Lehman describes postmodernism (retrieved from "The Questions of Postmodernism" in Jacket Magazine  [link to http://www.jacket.zip.com.au/jacket04/lehman-postmod.html no longer functions]) as an attitude that is definitely ironic. "[Postmodernism] revels in comedy and exalts the spirit of parody and play. It treats the monuments of tradition with particular irreverence." While not a monument of tradition, the Holocaust is nevertheless a sacred episode in history that, until recently, has been regarded with utter seriousness and sadness. The audacity of the soup nazi metaphor shocks us into laughter.

Loss of Innocence

As a society, at the turn of the 21st century, we have never been less innocent and less naïve. Our loss of innocence is a defining feature of postmodernism and is, in part, what has allowed metaphors such as soup nazi to thrive in our time. According to Umberto Eco, postmodernism is characterized by an awareness (through the mass media) of so much that has gone before (history). Because we are saturated with images and information, we are keenly aware, as in the case of the soup nazi, of the atrocities of the Second World war. Our ability to see that the TV character and Hitler are not the same is a powerful sign that our awareness has not wavered despite the passage of time.

Comedy as Art, Art as Preservation

In her article "How Can We Remember," Nancy Weston also suggests that art can be a way to preserve "the veracity of human empathy in the face of monstrousness …." Comedy may be considered an art form, and therefore, a format for preserving ideas and beliefs. The soup nazi parody may be considered an unconscious way of preserving the horror of that historical period. While Weston opposes the use of the soup nazi metaphor, her reference to the controversial work of Polish artist Zbigniew Libera touches on an interesting concept. In 1996, the Lego™ company sponsored one of Libera’s works. Using Lego pieces, Libera assembled a village with a mental hospital, Stalin’s prison, and a World War II or Bosnian concentration camp. Libera’s use of toys to depict such horrible scenes has left him open to charges of frivolousness and disrespect. Yet, it is precisely his use of toys (which he believes are the major key to the norms and values of society) that make his work so poignant.

In the same way that Libera controversially — and ironically — used toys to create art that fixes violent images, ideas, and events in our collective memory, the comic effect of the soup nazi metaphor preserves, for the time being, our awareness of that terrible history.

When It’s No Longer Funny

The evolution of language and meaning over time is inevitable. It is difficult to say how long the soup nazi metaphor or other "nazi" derivatives will last, but for the moment, its humour is a testament to our fundamental awareness of the appalling events of the Second World War. The argument that the term is offensive and trivializes those historic events to the point where their significance may be lost is, upon first inspection, a compelling one; however, the real danger lies in the time when the metaphor fails to illicit laughter. It is at this point that all association with the origins of the term will have been forgotten. The fear is not that history will repeat itself (it already has), but that the memory of millions of people will be forgotten.

Dalya Goldberger is the Managing Editor for Writer’s Block.