SAN BRUNO, CA—Continuing their ongoing efforts to rid their platform of hate speech, content managers at YouTube have decided to remove all videos featuring or referencing “The Soup Nazi,” a character from the ’90s sitcom Seinfeld.
“The Soup Nazi” was introduced in an episode by the same name during the show’s seventh season on NBC. Played by actor Larry Thomas, the character, Yev Kassem, is dubbed “The Soup Nazi” because of his strict rules and regulations for those ordering from his soup stand.
“Hate speech comes in all different forms,” said YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. “What might be a comical character to some, can be interpreted and used as malicious hate mongering by others. Restaurant owners and soup producers, in particular, could be deeply hurt and offended by this content.”
The show’s co-creator and star, Jerry Seinfeld, agrees with YouTube’s decision. “Comedy always involves risk, and as writers, we live on the edge of offense,” said Seinfeld. “However, in this particular instance, we have to admit we’ve crossed the line, and created something that could make our world a worse place to live, which, of course, is the opposite of what we’re trying to do.”
While fans of the show protested the removal, YouTube is standing by its “Soup Nazi” ban, shouting sharply, “No videos for you!”
Readers of the Bee,
If just a small fraction of our visitors became subscribers, we’d have enough funding to stop running ads and reduce our dependence on big tech companies like Facebook and Google. Will you partner with us to make this possible?
Comments are closed.