As an E! employee, we were able to attend last night’s taping of The Soup—jealousy does not become you—and are now able to bring our Inside Jokes series to a close. We are mildly satisfied to report that barring any last minute changes, turnarounds or goof ups, the Cheaters clips we have been following since Monday will definitely be a part of this week’s show. What a largely ignored and begrudgingly tolerated journey it has been!
Though the clips did make the final script, there were some careful moments during the taping wherein we thought the bit might just go pear-shaped, as we once heard a British person say. The details follow.
Here’s the Cheaters segment from Joel's shooting script:
"On Cheaters, Michelle explained how she doesn’t know what she’ll do if her boyfriend is cheating on her.
[Clip: I might just cut his bleep off]
"[As a producer] Might? Because we’re not taking your case for just a 'might.' I got six chicks and two cuckolds who are a go for castration, and they’re just waiting for me to pick up the phone and tell them they’re on the show.
"Of course he was cheating on her, otherwise she wouldn’t have been on. Let’s see if she makes good on her threat.
[Clip: She goes into car, grabs knife and puts him in a chokehold and tries top cut him until she is stopped by bouncers]
"Dude, I know you’re pissed right now, but she really loves you."
So, the pair of clips played pretty well with the audience, but after a few technical glitches and stuttering restarts of the bit, that last line just wasn’t paying off.
In this sort of circumstance, Joel stops the taping and, out of earshot of the audience, takes a few moments to huddle with the writers and, together, they spontaneously come up with a few replacement punch-line suggestions. Though this does break the rhythm of the show from the perspective of an audience member, it’s also an interesting moment. A sort of voyeuristic peek behind the scenes and the improvisational quality of the whole process actually reenergizes the studio.
To make a long story just a bit longer, the new punch line, suggested—we think—by writer, Darren Belitsky, went over much better, and the show moved on to a really funny clip from Cops and straight through to the Clip of the Week.
There you have it, fans. That's the tale of the tape, to borrow a sportscasting metaphor. Feel free to post any further questions and, please, watch this week's episode of The Soup to complete the whole story.