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No soup for you.

This line, delivered by actor Larry Thomas in an episode written by Spike Ferrisden,

was among the most famous catchphrases from the 90s sitcom Seinfeld.

The episode's title character, The Soup Nazi, was inspired by doctrinaire soup purveyor

Ali Al-Yagané, who at the time ran the bustling Manhattan hotspot Soup Kitchen International.

In Ferristin's telling in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show,

the plotline's genesis came from his patronage of Yeganese Supery while writing for David Letterman,

where he was denied his meal in the same way George Costanza is in the episode.

When later hired as a writer for Seinfeld, Ferristin's pitches were batted down by Larry David

and Jerry Seinfeld himself,

until Spike offhandedly mentioned the soup drama, which led to him being instructed to write a

draft. Actor Larry Thomas, for his part, didn't make enough money portraying the soup

Nazi to quit his day job as a bail bondsman, though he did later clean up at cons and on cameo.

While the publicity boosted its business from tourists, Yegane naturally loathed the

portrayal and his original concept shuddered in 2004.

But its spiritual successor reopened in its same Manhattan location in 2010 as part of a

broader franchise expansion.

As for automotive enthusiast Jerry Seinfeld,

he went on to direct and star in the 2024 film Unwatchable, sorry, unfrosted, where Ferristin

...