The extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who previously alerted the US to the dangers of space lasers, issued a new warning to the American people on Thursday: the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has unleashed “gazpacho police” to spy on Greene’s colleagues in Congress.
It is, of course, possible that a clandestine network bent on the regulation of cold soup operates deep under the Capitol cafeteria. But Greene was presumably confusing “gazpacho” with the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police.
Just to clear things up, @RepMTG
— The Republican Accountability Project (@AccountableGOP) February 9, 2022
Gazpacho: a vegetable-based Spanish cold soup
Gestapo: Nazi Germany's secret police pic.twitter.com/T9q76r706G
The comments prompted widespread social media mockery, but it’s not the first time soup and fascism have been linked in American popular culture. A 1995 episode of Seinfeld featured the cast visiting a celebrated Manhattan soup spot whose owner was a real stickler for the rules, earning him the nickname the Soup Nazi.
Though Greene appears to have limited historical knowledge, she does seem to be aware of the Seinfeld episode, later referencing the character’s catchphrase – “no soup for you” – in a tweeted effort to appear in on the joke. Many others made a similar connection.
Soup Nazi? pic.twitter.com/d4oluSlonR
— Maysoon (@maysoonzayid) February 9, 2022
Could the Soup Nazi have secretly been a member of the gazpacho police? We asked Larry Thomas, who played the character, for his take on the moment as soups and Nazis march back into the headlines.
Thomas, no fan of Greene or the ex-president she claims won re-election, says he was floored by the comments. “How in the world can a grown person, who grew up in the 20th century, not know what the word Gestapo is?” he asks. “They say ‘You can’t write this shit.’ It’s beyond you can’t write this shit.”
When he heard Greene’s remarks, he knew he’d be dragged into the picture. “If she got the word wrong with a nonsensical word, it would be one thing, but I knew as soon as she actually used the name of a soup that I was in trouble,” Thomas says. “And then she turns around and makes an actual Soup Nazi reference [on Twitter], you know, the ‘no soup for you, and you’re gonna end up in the goulash.’ I’m sure somebody wrote that for her. She can’t possibly be that funny.”
A Gazpacho Police TV series, or at least a sketch, now seems inevitable. “Saturday Night Live will jump all over that,” Thomas says, imagining a force that – much like his character – monitors “what kind of soup you’re eating and how you’re eating it”. Though the actor, who also appeared in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Arrested Development, recently retired, he’d love to resurrect the character. “I wish to God they would ask me to be a part of it,” he says. “I’m sure Jerry wouldn’t mind.”
The Soup Nazi is based on a real chef, Al Yeganeh, the man behind New York’s Original Soup Man shop, and Thomas is himself a devoted cook and has written a combination memoir-cookbook. “I grew up with a working single mom that never learned to cook, because she was always working full time. And my dad was the cook, but he took off when I was a little kid,” he says. “I just developed this natural sense of knowing how much spice and which spices to use.”
He has “about eight really good soup recipes”, he says. “But I did not venture into gazpacho. So I think it’s gonna be my next.”
