'You seem like you've been doing this for years'. Soup Emporium's comment sections are filled with this sentiment. In February of this year he seemed to materialise, fully-formed, on the trending page of YouTube with a steady stream of video essays. His increasingly massive following speculates in the comment section about how someone with so much mastery over the form could simply appear; one who defies categorisation with an eclectic range of topics, whose frenetic wit is grounded by a deep humanity, and whose appetite for research is caught somewhere between doctoral candidate and man 4AM-deep in a Wikipedia rabbit hole. Wherever he came from, he's clearly not going anywhere.

Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith really have been doing this for years. The writer-actors behind Inside No. 9, Psychoville, and The League of Gentlemen have been making twisted comedy for over two decades, moving through formats –sketch, serial, anthology– to match their tastes. Flesh-creepingly funny and fiercely independent from the trends of British television, unintentional monoliths of the TV landscape.

The video essayist is brand new, but seems as old as the titans of the medium. The old showrunners hold onto a creativity that keeps them young.

Soup Emporium and I talk authorship, audience relationships and independence to try and get to the bottom of his love.

Soup Emporium's Youtube channel can be found here

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