Seinfeld fans will recall that, in the eighth season of the show, Elaine inadvertently inspires her old boss, Mr. Lippman, to launch a new business that exclusively sells muffin tops. But the shop “Top of the Muffin to You!” runs into trouble when Lippman can’t a way to properly dispose of the muffin stumps that literally nobody in the world likes.

Weirdly, this episode about a stolen pastry-based idea, was itself accused of thievery. Back in 2017, podcast host (and Canada’s archenemy) Joe Rogan suggested that the muffin top storyline was lifted from Paul Blart himself: Kevin James.

Rogan told guest Andrew Santino that some of Seinfeld’s “top writers” once went to see James perform at “an NBC showcase, when Kevin was getting a development deal.” And the following season one of his “signature bits” about muffins “was on a Seinfeld episode.”

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James does have a bit about muffins,...