Created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, the “show about nothing” is a landmark series that forever altered the perception of sitcoms. Though Seinfeld struggled to win over audiences initially, by the ninth season it was the number one show on primetime television, according to Nielsen ratings. After spending weeks binging the entire series on Netflix, we felt it appropriate to rank our favorite episodes. We’ll unpack plenty of iconic moments from Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer, as well as the countless supporting characters who provided so much substance for the show about nothing. You can also consider this list as “The Best Seinfeld Episodes for Beginners.” So without further ado, let’s get into the list.
25. The Little Kicks (Season 8 Episode 4)
Foremost, we’re starting out with a fantastic Elaine-centric episode. She shocks the J. Peterman holiday party with her fitful dancing, twisting her ankles and thumbs arthritically. Jerry speaks of the travesty like folklore, with George comparing her moves to “a full-body dry heave set to music.” Anytime you’re nervous about attending a party, just remember Elaine. Elsewhere, George struggles to pull off a “bad-boy” aesthetic.
24. The Invitations (Season 7 Episode 24)
If there’s one commonality in the sequencing of Seinfeld episodes, it’s that every season starts and ends on a high note. “The Invitations” is no different, as George’s cold feet are profoundly sinister. He’d been trying to break off his engagement to Susan the entire season. It seems as though he’s finally wrapped his head around the marriage and goes to purchase wedding invitations. Unbeknownst to George, the glue on the cheap envelopes was toxic, killing Susan mid-lick. In what is easily one of the darkest Seinfeld episodes, George delivers a pricelessly blase reaction to the “bad” news.
23. The Subway (Season 3 Episode 13)
This episode sees everyone have an uncommon experience when they go their separate ways on the subway. Jerry falls asleep and befriends a naked man on his way to Coney Island. Kramer gets a hot tip on a horseracing bet to pay his traffic tickets. George befriends a woman with ulterior motives and Elaine has a panic attack on her way to a lesbian wedding. “The Subway” is extremely well-balanced and contains some of the best one-liners from the early seasons.
22. The Rye (Season 7 Episode 11)
The first of many episodes on this list featuring George’s parents, Frank and Estelle Costanza. Leading up to the wedding, they meet Susan’s parents for the first time and gift them a Schnitzer’s marble rye bread. The Rosses forget to put out the rye at dinner, though Frank swears it’s deliberate. He steals back the rye, prompting George to craft an elaborate plan to sneak it back into their house. The end result? George gets caught using a fishing rod to reel the rye up to their third-floor apartment. This episode also features possibly the worst thing Jerry does in the entire series when he snatches the last rye from an old woman.
21. The Bizarro Jerry (Season 8 Episode 3)
After Larry David peacefully left Seinfeld following the seventh season, there was concern about whether the show would reflect his departure. “The Bizarro Jerry” was the beginning of one of the best four-episode runs in the entire series. Elaine hangs out with “bizarro” versions of the guys, all of whom are much nicer and more successful. Additionally, Kramer pretends to work at a firm downtown and George use’s his fiancee’s death to pick up women. Above all, the show was certainly still in good hands.
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20. The Library (Season 3 Episode 5)
Jerry discovers a copy of “Tropic of Cancer” is 20 years overdue, putting a no-nonsense library investigator named Lt. Joe Bookman hot on his case. Philip Baker Hall gives an incredible performance as Bookman, easily becoming one of the more memorable guest appearances in the entire series. Outside the library, George thinks a homeless man is his high school gym teacher who frequently bullied him until George got him fired. When George tries to make amends with him, he gives George yet another atomic wedgie just like old times.
19. The Little Jerry (Season 8 Episode 11)
Jerry bounces a check at a bodega, landing it on the wall of shame. However, the owner will only take it down if Kramer’s new rooster, affectionately dubbed “Little Jerry,” wins an underground cockfight. George supposes he’s found a dating loophole when he links with an inmate at a women’s prison. He thinks he’s successfully rid himself of the “pop-in” girlfriend, even going as far as preventing her from getting parole. To his surprise, Celia manages to break out of prison and pop in anyways.
18. The Abstinence (Season 8 Episode 9)
George and Elaine have drastically different experiences with involuntary abstinence. George finds himself more focused and becomes a scholar overnight. Elaine, on the other hand, gradually gets dumber and more childish. Elsewhere, Jerry gets booed by children and Kramer turns his apartment into a cigar lounge. This episode also features timely cameos from Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams fresh off a 1996 World Series win. Naturally, they’re shown getting hitting lessons from George.
17. The Conversion (Season 5 Episode 11)
“KAVORKA!” George wants to convert to Latvian Orthodox so he can continue dating a beautiful woman. While at the church, Kramer accidentally swoons one of the sisters, causing her to question her faith. The Latvian church says Kramer’s got the kavorka, or “the lure of the animal,” and he is a danger to society. Meanwhile, Jerry snoops through a woman’s medicine cabinet and becomes obsessed with why she has fungicide.
16. The Marine Biologist (Season 5 Episode 14)
As you’ll continue to see with the majority of these episodes, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s writing is second to none. George is no stranger to living his life through an intricate web of lies, but this time there’s a catch. Jerry tells George’s old crush that he has become a marine biologist, forcing George to act the part. Meanwhile, Kramer golfs on the beach and Elaine has to babysit a crazed Russian author. The dovetailed ending ties George’s gambit with Kramer’s golfing. As a result, George crafts an intricate story of how he heroically saved a beached whale by removing a golf ball from its blowhole, all just to impress his old crush. This episode is beyond funny and is why it made its way on our list of the best Seinfeld episodes of all time.
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15. The Bubble Boy (Season 4 Episode 6)
“It the Moops!” First off, Elaine forces Jerry to stop and pay a visit to a bubble boy on the way to a weekend getaway at Susan’s grandfather’s cabin. Then George and the bubble boy get into a heated debate over a typo while playing Trivial Pursuit, eventually popping the bubble. Word spreads quickly of a stocky bald guy from the city who tried to kill the bubble boy, and the entire town chases George. When they finally arrive at the cabin, they discover one of Kramer’s Cuban cigars accidentally caused the cabin to burn down.
14. The Limo (Season 3 Episode 18)
Jerry and George use fake names to snag a free limousine from the airport. The guys think they’re going to a Bulls vs. Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, only to discover that the limo actually belongs to a prominent neo-Nazi. George is tasked with delivering a hate-fueled speech to his devoted following, and he’s willing to play along once he notices an affectionate comrade. This is one of the riskier plots in the series, proving that the show about nothing is actually about everything.
13. The Frogger (Season 9 Episode 18)
When Jerry and George return to a pizza shop they frequented in high school, George realizes the Frogger game still has his old high score on it. With the shop going out of business, George buys the game to preserve his record. He’s forced to enlist the help of some shady characters in order to ensure the machine doesn’t lose power in transit or else his score is erased. The episode concludes with one of the more famous scenes from the entire series as George attempts to wheel the arcade machine across a busy road just like the namesake game.
12. The Butter Shave (Season 9 Episode 1)
After George is fired from the Yankees, he gets a new job at Play Now where he fakes being handicapped in order to get special treatment. He merrily moves around the office with a cane, proving once again that Costanza will do practically anything to avoid work. Meanwhile, Kramer discovers the many amazing uses for butter. After using it for sunscreen, he accidentally cooks himself on the rooftop, leaving Newman to salivate over the decadent aroma.
11. The Chinese Restaurant (Season 2 Episode 11)
Seinfeld often finds humor in life’s most mundane situations. This is one of the first episodes to fully embody the “show about nothing” premise, with arguably no episode to better sum the concept. The entire episode takes place in the waiting area of a Chinese restaurant as Jerry, George, and Elaine wait to be seated. The episode is shot in real-time to envelop the audience in this waiting game we’ve all played many a time before. “The Chinese Restaurant” is recognized as breakthrough proof that audiences need not be tied to complex or emotional storylines to connect with a show.
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10. The Opposite (Season 5 Episode 22)
Yet another example of Seinfeld‘s fantastic season finales. Fed up with his constant failures, George realizes that every decision he’s ever made in life has been wrong. His solution? Just do the opposite. Miraculously, this works! However, as George’s luck swings up, Elaine’s fortune crashes down as a counterbalance, prompting her to proclaim “I’ve become George!” Elsewhere, Kramer is a guest on Regis and Kathie Lee’s show to promote his coffee table book about coffee tables.
9. The Parking Garage (Season 3 Episode 6)
This is another perfect example of the “show about nothing” in full effect. The episode centers on the tiresome task of tracking down your car in a packed parking garage. However, the stakes are a bit higher here than in “The Chinese Restaurant,” as three characters are dealing with a ticking clock. Elaine must get her new goldfish home before it dies, George has to make it to his parents’ anniversary dinner, and Jerry really has to use the bathroom. Jerry and George are arrested – and later released – for public urination. Most notably, the episode concludes with the gang finally tracking down the car, only for it to not start.
8. The Package (Season 8 Episode 5)
Jerry thinks a mysterious package sent to him contains a bomb, leading to his Uncle Leo unknowingly signing for it instead. Kramer gets Jerry accused of mail fraud and consequently interrogated by his arch-nemesis, Newman. However, the most memorable storyline from this episode is George’s awkward relationship with a photo store clerk. George thinks she purposely left a revealing photo of herself with his, prompting him to take his own Playboy-worthy shot directed by Kramer.
7. The Fusilli Jerry (Season 6 Episode 20)
In a very Kramer-centric episode, he gifts Jerry a titular statue made out of pasta and mistakenly gets vanity license plates that say “Assman.” By the end, these two storylines are expertly woven together. Elsewhere, Elaine’s boyfriend Puddy steals Jerry’s “move” and Frank thinks Kramer used his “stop-short” move with Estelle. When Frank goes to confront him, he falls on the Fusilli Jerry and is rushed to the proctologist. There, Kramer meets the real “Assman” thanks to the mishap dubbed the “million-to-one shot, Doc!”. A fantastic Frank Costanze episode and overall classic, making it easily one of the best Seinfeld episodes of all time.
6. The Soup Nazi (Season 7 Episode 6)
No guest actor made a greater impact on Seinfeld lore than Larry Thomas for his role as the titular soup shop owner so strict about the ordering procedure that violators are turned away. As a result, Elaine feels the wrath of the Soup Nazi, and Jerry chooses soup over his girlfriend. Moreover, the iconic “No soup for you!” line has been cemented in pop culture history. Meanwhile, Elaine entrusts Kramer to watch her new armoire, only for it to be stolen. Kramer gifts her a new armoire courtesy of an unknowing Soup Nazi, where she discovers all of his hidden soup recipes.
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5. The Hamptons (Season 5 Episode 21)
Arguably the most culturally-influential episode of Seinfeld, “The Hamptons” gifts us with the term “shrinkage” after Jerry’s girlfriend walks in on a naked George fresh out of the pool. To make matters worse for George, everyone sees his girlfriend topless except for him, much to his chagrin. Meanwhile, when Jerry and Elaine are introduced to their friend’s new baby, they instantly agree that it is the ugliest baby they’ve ever seen.
4. The Race (Season 6 Episode 10)
Jerry dates a woman whose boss was his high school rival, Duncan, who correctly recalls that Jerry took a head start in an infamous race. Elsewhere, Elaine dates a communist whose rhetoric spreads to Kramer’s mall Santa gig and George’s job with the Yankees. Mr. Steinbrenner uses George’s suspected communism to recruit Cuban baseball players and he ends up meeting Fidel Castro. ‘The Race’ is very deserving of its place on this list of the best Seinfeld episodes of all time.
3. The Chicken Roaster (Season 8 Episode 8)
When a new Kenny Rogers Roasters opens up across the street, the large neon sign floods Kramer’s apartment, prompting him and Jerry to switch spaces. Naturally, we see the two also swapping mannerisms, with Jerry becoming more and more like Kramer the longer he bakes in the neon red light. Kramer, on the other hand, becomes wildly addicted to the chicken with Newman serving as his runner unbeknownst to Jerry. For Elaine, careless spending on the company credit card forces her into an audit after she purchases an expensive sable hat for George. Additionally, George’s cowardice and conniving tendencies are on full display when he purposely leaves the hat at a woman’s apartment in order to get another date with her.
2. The Contest (Season 4 Episode 11)
After George’s mom catches him in the act, a bet challenges everyone to become masters of their domain. Jerry dates a virgin while Elaine tries to swoon JFK Jr. What’s most impressive about this episode is the writing savvy to craft an entire arc about sexual self-gratification without ever actually using the word “masturbate” – NBC thought the topic was unfit for prime time television. One of the funniest moments in the entire series comes when Kramer struts into Jerry’s apartment and slams his wager on the table, proclaiming “I’m out” before promptly exiting. In the end, everyone gets a good night’s sleep, but who really won?
1. The Strike (Season 9 Episode 10)
“A Festivus for the rest of us!” Ah yes, the one where we find out that free-spirited Kramer has actually had a job this whole time! Kind of – the bagel shop he worked at ends a strike after twelve years. More importantly, this episode gave us Festivus, a holiday unlike any other. Disgusted by the consumerist nature of Christmas shopping, Frank Costanza invents a new holiday complete with an aluminum pole, feats of strength, and the airing of grievances. Additionally, George invents a fake charity so he doesn’t have to give his coworkers Christmas gifts. Thus giving us the classic slogan, “The Human Fund: Money for People.” Season 9 is arguably the best Seinfeld season and “The Strike” is widely considered the funniest Seinfeld episode.
We hope you enjoyed our ranking of the 25 best Seinfeld episodes. Let us know what you would change in the comments section below! Lastly, Wes Anderson’s 10 Feature Films Ranked.
