The 25 Greatest Seinfeld Episodes Of All Time
25. The Pez Dispenser
During a George’s girlfriend’s piano recital, Jerry puts a Tweety Bird pez dispenser on Elaine’s leg, which causes her to burst out laughing. The main story is hilarious, but Kramer trying to sell a fragrance to Calvin Klein that smells like the beach is what really puts this episode above the rest.
24. The Pilot
You usually don’t see an episode titled “The Pilot” in the finale of the fourth season, but this one is centered around the show George and Jerry wrote for NBC in the ultimate Seinfeld Inception. Their pilot runs into trouble when the president of NBC doesn’t show up for taping after a bad date with Elaine.
23. The Merv Griffin Show
Kramer finds the furniture from The Merv Griffin show in the trash and recreates the set in his apartment, while Jerry keeps drugging his girlfriend in order to play with her classic toy collection. The highlight of the episode is when Kramer convinces animal expert Jim Fowler to appear on his show and he asks, “Where are the cameras?”
22. The Bubble Boy
Jerry and the gang are headed to George’s girlfriend’s cabin upstate when they stop along the way to visit what they believe is a sick child who is a big fan of Jerry. It turns out the bubble boy is not what they expected and, in fact, is a crass young adult. George ends up getting in a fight with him and busting his bubble over a game of Trivial Pursuit.
21. The Opposite
Jerry opens George’s eyes to his terrible life decision-making skills and convinces him to do the opposite of all his natural instincts. As a result he gets a job with the New York Yankees and an attractive girlfriend. It’s one of the best George episodes, and that’s saying something.
20. The Betrayal
This is the classic backwards episode that pulls a Memento on us and tells the story of Elaine, Jerry, and George going to India for Sue Ellen Mischkie’s wedding. It’s one of the most inventive and memorable episodes of any show in recent memory.
19. The Yada Yada
There are so many great moments in this episode, including Bryan Cranston as Tim Whatley who Jerry thinks only converted to Judaism in order to tell Jewish jokes. Also the phrase “anti-dentite” was born during this episode.
18. The Dealership
You can never go wrong with an episode that features Puddy. This one is particularly great because Kramer tries to see how far he can drive on an empty tank during a test drive, while George goes completely insane on a mechanic he accuses of stealing his Twix bar.
17. The Bottle Deposit
Kramer and Newman try to pull off the ultimate crime by taking a truckload of bottles and cans to Michigan in order to get a 10-cent per can refund. Brad Garrett has a fantastic guest appearance as a crazed mechanic.
16. The Shower Head
Jerry’s building replaces all the shower heads with low-flow models, but Newman can them hooked up with some black market shower heads used on elephants in the circus. This is a classic Peterman episode, as he keeps mistaking Kramer begging Elaine to use her shower for a junkie trying to score some drugs. The flat hair that everyone has through the episode is an added piece of hilarity.
15. The Fusilli Jerry
Kramer accidentally gets a vanity license plate that reads ASSMAN. It becomes a problem for him later when George’s dad is convinced Kramer is trying to make moves on his wife. This is also the first Puddy episode, which makes it even better.
14. Serenity Now
George and Lloyd Braun take their rivalry to another level after George’s dad sets up a computer sales business. The phrase “Serenity now!” may be the most underappreciated catch phrase the show ever created.
13. The Bizarro Jerry
Elaine gets a new group of friends that are the exact opposite of Jerry, George, and Kramer, which makes for a hilarious encounter when the two groups finally collide. If that wasn’t enough, this is also the “man hands” episode where Jerry is dating a woman with giant, manly hands.
12. The Invitations
George insists on buying cheap envelopes for the invitations to his wedding with Susan. Unfortunately the adhesive is toxic and poisons Susan, resulting in her death.
11. The Jimmy
The Jimmy is a horribly obnoxious guy who joined Jerry and George’s health club and constantly talks about himself in the third person. This is another episode that features Bryan Cranston, this time we learn that his dentist office is adults-only, as he keeps Penthouse magazines in the waiting room.
10. The Hamptons
Jerry’s girlfriend sees George naked after he was swimming in the pool, which George claimed to have caused a dramatic amount of shrinkage.
9. The Summer of George
George gets a three-month severance package from the Yankees and vows to have the greatest summer ever. The episode ends with George in physical therapy trying to regain the ability to walk and mumbling, “The Summer of George.”
8. The Junior Mint
Kramer and Jerry go in to watch Elaine’s ex-boyfriend have surgery when Kramer tries to give Jerry a Junior Mint. Jerry pushes it away and it ends up landing inside the patient. After his health goes south, George decides to buy a bunch of his paintings, thinking he’s about to die. In turn, it was George’s purchases that gave him the motivation to pull through.
7. The Parking Garage
The gang searches a parking garage for hours since they can’t remember where they parked. The best part of the episode is that Michael Richards insisted on carrying around an actual air conditioner to make his performance look as realistic as possible.
6. The Contest
I was 13 when this episode came out so I had no idea what they were actually talking about with the master of their domain, but now it’s one of the funniest episodes of any show I’ve seen. This was during a time period when subject matters like this weren’t common topics, so not only was it hilarious, it was very risqué.
5. The Chicken Roaster
Jerry and Kramer switch apartments because a Kenny Rogers Roasters opened across the street and Jerry’s college friend works there, who he unintentionally got fired from his previous job. Soon Jerry and Kramer switch personalities while a creepy puppet named Mr. Marbles may or may not come to life at night. It’s absurd and ridiculously hilarious.
4. The Puffy Shirt
Jerry accidentally agrees to wear a pirate-like shirt that Kramer’s “low-talking” girlfriend asked him to wear, while George becomes a hand model. The episode went from great to legendary with the final scene when a homeless man, wearing the puffy shirt, asks Jerry if he can spare a little change for an old buccaneer.
3. The Soup Nazi
Not only is the Soup Nazi one of the most hilarious characters to ever appear on the show, this was also the episode that had Jerry and his girlfriend calling each other “Schmoopie” which drove everyone else crazy.
2. The Marine Biologist
George’s speech at the end of the episode is one of greatest moments in the history of the show. He explains how he saved a beached whale by extracting a golf ball from its blowhole. Of course the ball was a result of Kramer using the ocean as a driving range. This is also the episode where Jerry, not only convinces, but gets Elaine to inform a potential book client that the original title of War and Peace was War: What is it Good For?
1. The Chinese Restaurant
It may seem like an odd choice for the best episode, but it completely defined the show about nothing. Elaine, George, and Jerry sit in the waiting area of a Chinese restaurant, and little else happens, but it’s absolutely brilliant. Reports say that NBC almost didn’t air the episode because of how little goes on during it, but thank goodness Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld won that battle. It’s such a timeless episode that will be funny for years to come.
image – Seinfeld: The Complete Series
