1. By: Dalya Goldberger Presented by: Bo Kim

2. The Soup Nazi is the disagreeable and dictatorial restauranteur who was popularized in episodes of the television sitcom, “Seinfeld” Other variations such as fashion nazi, parking nazi, and traffic nazi are becoming a comic way of referring to overzealous individuals in every sphere of life. While some embrace this term, others feel that the casual use of “nazi” trivializes violence and dilutes our memory of World War II

3. Should we be offended or is the acceptance of the term just a reflection of our underlying awareness of the horrific events that created the metaphor? Is our laughter an unintentional and indirect way of preserving these terrible memories? Concern: If the word is no longer associated solely with its original meaning of WWII, it might be stamped out of our memory.

4. Until recently, the word “Nazi” was spelled with a capital “N” and was inseparable from images of death camps, swastikas, and Adolph Hitler Today, spelling “nazi” with a lower case “n” suggests a decline in the term’s importance and seriousness. “No more soup for you!” said the Soup Nazi. “No more soup for you!” said the soup nazi.

5. If soup nazi alludes to such a violent time in our history, why is it so funny? Social mores of the 90’s gave us permission to laugh at individuals who make fun of themselves In addition, our postmodern condition, characterized by irony and a loss of innocence, provides an environment in which such a metaphor can thrive.

6. Irony: the expression of meaning using language that normally expresses the opposite The soup nazi metaphor is comical because it is ironic – it compares the horrific imagery of the Holocaust against that of a dictatorial soup restauranteur The audacity of the metaphor shocks us into laughter.

7. At the turn of the 21 st century, we have never been less innocent and less naïve (a feature of postmodernism) Postmodernism is characterized by an awareness, through mass media, of our history 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

8. Comedy may be considered an art form and therefore, is a format for preserving ideas and beliefs. The soup nazi parody may be considered an unconscious way of preserving the horror of WWII. Therefore, the comic effect of the soup nazi metaphor actually preserves our awareness of that terrible history.

9. The evolution of language and meaning over time is inevitable and it is difficult to say how long “nazi” derivatives will last, but for the moment, its humor shows our awareness of WWII. The argument that the term is offensive is very compelling, however, the real danger lies in the time when the metaphor fails to illicit laughter – not fear that history will repeat itself, but that the memory of millions of people will be forgotten.

10. Any Questions?