The 15 Best Seinfeld Episodes Ranked

With the show continuing to find new audiences in the streaming era and influence current sitcoms, it’s safe to say “Seinfeld” is one of the greatest comedies of all time. Created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the show ran for nine seasons from 1989 to 1998, depicting the misadventures of a fictionalized version of Seinfeld and his friends. Each episode was relatively self-contained, with Jerry and his friends running into various misanthropic antics involving dating, their careers, and living in New York City. For a show seemingly about nothing, the phrases, terms, and scenarios throughout “Seinfeld” have entered the modern lexicon as a testament to the show’s legacy.

While many of the show’s 180 episodes are enduring classics, there are a handful that are just a cut above the rest (with some stinkers mixed in occasionally). From giving each of its main ensemble perfectly inane storylines to thoroughly quotable scenes, these episodes stand as “Seinfeld” as its absolute best, changing comedy forever. 

Here are the 15 best episodes of “Seinfeld.”

While Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) initially seems like the most rational of the core “Seinfeld” group, she can be just as wacky and petty as the rest of her friends. The eighth season episode “The Little Kicks” has Elaine’s co-workers lose respect for her after witnessing her poor dance skills. This coincides with Jerry finding that he has a natural talent for illegally filming bootleg films in movie theater screenings. These two plot threads collide as Elaine tries to prove to herself that her dancing isn’t actually all that bad.

Though “Seinfeld” is primarily dialogue-driven, the show always had a penchant for physical comedy, largely driven by Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Louis-Dreyfus gets the perfect showcase for her own physical comedy skills in “The Little Kicks,” as she reveals Elaine’s bizarre dancing. Elaine’s odd, off-tempo jerking motions became a memorable part of the character and cracked her self-assured veneer. The episode then closes on a high note, with Jerry Stiller’s Frank Costanza always elevating whatever scenes he appears in, especially paired against Louis-Dreyfus.

So much comedy in “Seinfeld” is mined from how pathetic Jerry’s best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander) is, both professionally and in his love life. The eighth season finale, “The Summer of George,” brings this center stage as George decides to live his best life after being fired by the New York Yankees. As George’s behavior becomes particularly slovenly, as he enjoys his severance package, Jerry and Kramer go to the Tonys, with Kramer working as a seat filler. This leads to an altercation with Raquel Welch, playing herself, with both Kramer and Elaine catching her bad side.

Though its title suggests a heightened focus on George, “The Summer of George” really does give all four of the main group their own fun storylines. Kramer’s mix-up at the Tony Awards is a highlight, with Richards catching Kramer’s bewilderment and faux pride in equal measure. Having said that, the lengths of depravity Alexander brings to George in this episode are a joy to watch as the character revels in his own filth. Left to his own devices, George is all of us, though, reality inevitably comes calling to collect on his life of leisure as only “Seinfeld” can depict.

It always feels like a special occasion whenever “Seinfeld” takes the action out of Manhattan and the fifth season episode “The Hamptons” has fun with this setup. While vacationing in East Hampton for a weekend, Jerry and George are joined by their respective girlfriends, Rachel (Melanie Smith) and Jane (Melora Walters). George grows incredibly jealous after everyone accidentally sees Jane naked except him, while Rachel sees George’s penis after it temporarily recedes from exposure to cold water. Through this relationship drama, Kramer unwittingly becomes a lobster poacher, unaware that commercial lobster cages are not for public use.

The term “shrinkage,” referring to retracted genitals, became popularized from its usage in “The Hamptons,” ubiquitous with the show’s prominence in contemporary slang. Beyond its lexical impact, “The Hamptons” demonstrates just how petty and jealous George can get whenever he feels slighted. Like most bad behavior in “Seinfeld,” he receives his comeuppance swiftly and fully, though also without learning any sort of lesson. George’s trip to the Hamptons was certainly an unforgettable one, but definitely not for the reasons that he had hoped for.

Having grown up together, Jerry and George have a close friendship, something that comes under intense scrutiny in the fourth season episode “The Outing.” A reporter (Paula Marshall) mistakes Jerry and George for a homosexual couple which is referenced in an interview piece she publishes. Falsely outed, the two try to prove to her that they’re heterosexual, while stressing that they’re also not homophobic by being offended with the association. Of course, their efforts only further fuels the conception that they are actually in a same-sex couple all along.

“The Outing” gives “Seinfeld” another enduring catchphrase in “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” clarifying that there would be nothing wrong with being mistaken for being queer. Though the creative team was worried how “The Outing” would be perceived, the episode actually won a GLAAD Award in 1994 for Outstanding Comedy Series, quelling those anxieties. Just as Jerry and George do within the episode, the writing carefully maintains that balance, avoiding homophobia while poking fun at their relationship. On top of that, the episode itself is just incredibly funny, elevated by Seinfeld and Alexander’s natural rapport.

The first extended “Seinfeld” episode, with later broadcasts and home video releases splitting into two parts, was the third season episode “The Boyfriend.” Jerry befriends real-life New York Mets infielder Keith Hernandez, playing himself, only to get jealous when Keith starts dating Elaine. Meanwhile, Kramer and Newman (Wayne Knight) believe Keith spit on them while walking out of Shea Stadium following a game. As Jerry, Kramer, and Newman debate the veracity of this accusation, George tries to extend his unemployment benefits by making up the fake company Vandelay Industries, specializing in latex products.

“The Boyfriend” works all the better with the appreciation of it being a direct parody of Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie “JFK” during its spitting investigation. Even beyond this pitch-perfect send-up, Hernandez makes for one of the best celebrity guest stars on “Seinfeld” playing themselves. He plays well off much of the cast and is given quite a bit of screentime to showcase his acting chops. Even though George is relegated to the episode’s secondary storyline, he makes the most of it, continuing the saga of his fabricated persona Art Vandelay.

True to its title, the third season episode “The Parking Garage” takes place entirely within a parking garage as the main ensemble visits a shopping mall in New Jersey. As the quartet searches for Kramer’s car, they each have pressing time concerns to leave as soon as possible. Both Jerry and George find themselves needing to take a massive pee while Elaine’s new pet goldfish runs the risk of dying unless they relocate to fresher water at home. This leads to the group splitting up where they each run into their own misadventures in the garage separately.

“The Parking Garage” makes the most of its unique setting, providing its characters with a commonly familiar conundrum to many viewers at home. Kramer provides a constant source of physical comedy, lugging around a heavy air conditioner through the garage, though Richards was injured during filming. The time sensitive component also gives the episode a sense of urgency that the cast takes advantage of in their own respective ways. Episodes like “The Parking Garage” take the “Seinfeld” humor out of Manhattan to great effect while effectively focusing entirely on its core cast in this transplanted scenario.

Throughout the series, George has faked it until he’s made it in plenty of situations, pretending to be everything from an architect to a latex salesman. George’s most memorable fake job is posing as a marine biologist in the similarly titled fifth season episode. Jerry tells George’s old college crush Diane (Rosalind Allen) that he’s since become a marine biologist, impressing her and forcing George to maintain the ruse. Meanwhile, Elaine spends time with renowned Russian author Yuri Testikov (George Murdock), who is prone to a fiery temper.

From its seemingly innocuous moments to its major payoffs, “The Marine Biologist” is an episode where everything ties together beautifully by the end. Jerry’s offhand joke about Russian literature to Elaine and Kramer’s new golfing habit may seem inconsequential at first, but they each play big roles in the overarching story. Closing out the episode is a wonderful monologue from George, putting a bow on his extended stint as a fake marine biologist and ending on a perfect punchline. While “Seinfeld” characters can be heroes for a moment, their sins catch up with them eventually, and that’s played to maximum hilarity in “The Marine Biologist.”

Old feuds and communism collide in the sixth season episode “The Race,” with Jerry reuniting with his high school rival Duncan (Don McManus). Convinced Jerry cheated on a footrace between them decades ago, Duncan challenges Jerry to a rematch, with the fate of Jerry’s latest girlfriend (Renee Props) hanging in the balance. After being blacklisted at a local Chinese restaurant, Elaine discovers that her boyfriend (Todd Kimsey) is a communist. This association spreads to George and Kramer, affecting each of them at their respective jobs.

While “The Race” is named after the athletic challenge Jerry faces in the episode, the real highlight is the communism storylines. Seeing how being linked to communism impacts Kramer and George is the biggest source of comedy in the episode, with George actually securing a rare victory for himself. That said, Jerry’s storyline still packs plenty of laughs, particularly in its references to Superman, right down to Jerry’s parting gag in the episode. A bit of an underrated “Seinfeld” episode, “The Race” is a solid episode for all four of its leads.

As George repeatedly expounds within the show, “Seinfeld” is a show about nothing, an ethos informed by the second season episode “The Chinese Restaurant.” Set entirely within the foyer of a Chinese restaurant, the episode has Jerry, Elaine, and George wait for a table to become available. As the trio grows increasingly hungry from the extended wait, their outside obligations begin to bleed into their restaurant-set purgatory. Even desperate measures, like Elaine bribing the maître d’hôtel (James Hong), prove ineffective as the group’s evening plans gradually unravel.

Arguably the episode where “Seinfeld” found its creative voice, the show takes something as innocuous as waiting for a restaurant table and turns it into a hilarious ordeal. Just when the single-setting joke feels played out, “The Chinese Restaurant” takes a new turn, always at its main characters’ expense. That the episode did this without Kramer is all the more impressive, though it made Richards concerned about his future on the show. This is supported expertly by Hong, whose deadpan performance as the maître d’hôtel fuels the main group’s frustration, right down to the best closing punchline in the series.

With Jerry being such an avowed Superman fan, it was only a matter of time before an overtly Superman-inspired story made its way onto “Seinfeld.” The eighth season episode “The Bizarro Jerry” has Elaine decide to hangout with her recent ex, Kevin (Tim DeKay), and his group of friends. Though similar to Jerry and his usual ensemble, Elaine finds this throng to be genially opposite to Jerry’s crowd, with Jerry comparing them to Superman’s inverted enemy Bizarro. Separately, Kramer finds himself accidentally mistaken for an employee at a building he frequents for its restroom, an error that he plays along with.

The inversion of the familiar faces that “Seinfeld” fans have grown accustomed to is absolutely hilarious, especially seen through Elaine’s bewildered perspective. The story is something that only an established show could tell and the episode takes full advantage of the premise. “The Bizarro Jerry” also provides classic Jerry and Kramer setups, with Jerry uncomfortable about a girlfriend because of her “man hands” and Kramer unassumingly stumbling into a white collar job. “The Bizarro Jerry” is an expertly mixed cocktail of what makes “Seinfeld” great, juxtaposed against their thematic opposites.

“Seinfeld” truly went out while it was still on top, with many episodes in its ninth and final season among the series’ best. The greatest of them all from the ninth season is “The Merv Griffin Show,” with Kramer obtaining the discarded set pieces from the ’70s talk show of the same name. Taking advantage of his random dumpster dive, Kramer begins to host faux talk show segments from his apartment, with Newman as his sidekick. This coincides with Jerry beginning to date a woman with an extensive vintage toy collection, which she forbids him from playing with.

Watching Kramer quickly slide into his talk show host persona alone makes “The Merv Griffin Show” worthy of a spot on this list. This is elevated by a bemused Jerry going along for the ride, agreeing to appear as a guest while visiting Kramer on his reconstructed set. Beyond its core premise, “The Merv Griffin Show” gives everyone else in the ensemble solid storylines of their own, inevitably converging by the climax.

If there’s one ubiquitous image of Jerry Seinfeld in “Seinfeld” it’s him wearing the eponymous apparel from “The Puffy Shirt.” The fifth season episode has Jerry unwittingly agree to wear a shirt designed by Kramer’s comedically soft-spoken girlfriend Leslie (Wendel Meldrum) on a talk show. Feeling the unusual shirt makes him look like a pirate, Jerry openly derides the shirt on-air, angering Leslie. Meanwhile, George discovers he has notably beautiful hands and begins a career as a hand model.

“The Puffy Shirt,” including Jerry’s indignant complaint about having to wear it, have become widespread touchstones for “Seinfeld” overall. From “Fresh Off the Boat” to “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” the pirate-esque shirt has been lampooned while other shows reference “Seinfeld.” These allusions wouldn’t have the recognition and appeal, of course, if “The Puffy Shirt” wasn’t among the funniest episodes in the entire series. Though Jerry’s shirt gets the lion’s share of the episode’s attention, Alexander’s portrayal of George as an increasingly self-conscious hand model deserves ample praise too.

If George has gone through life enduring a never-ending series of self-inflicted disasters, Elaine is arguably the most professional and put-together of the show’s core group. This dynamic is inverted in the fifth season finale “The Opposite,” with George deciding to consciously make the opposite decision he would normally make in a given situation. As George’s lifestyle dramatically improves from this stance, Elaine’s quickly erodes in the wake of her recent promotion. Observing this reversal of fortune, Jerry realizes his life stays relatively “even Steven,” with every setback immediately countered by an equal success.

While George’s rise is certainly a highlight, the true standout performance of the episode is Louis-Dreyfus playing Elaine’s downfall. By the end of “The Opposite,” Louis-Dreyfus has Elaine hilariously echoing George, right down to his slouched posture and sad-sack wardrobe. The episode is also oddly important in the overarching narrative, giving George his job with the Yankees, while removing Elaine from Pendant Publishing. Richards also makes the most of Kramer’s patently absurd storyline, getting to play off Regis Philbin and Kathy Lee Gifford as he promotes his coffee table-shaped coffee table book.

Even in the ’90s, television networks were wary about some topics making it to air, one of them being the subject of masturbation. However, “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David risked his job to write an episode centered on masturbation for the fourth season episode “The Contest.” After George is caught in an act of self-satisfaction, he and the rest of the group bet each other who can go the longest without indulging in sexual self-pleasure. This competition begins to take a noticeable toll on its participants the longer they go, even as they drop out one-by-one.

“The Contest” is one of those episodes that is widely credited with helping “Seinfeld” find its identity, and that observation isn’t idly made. The way that each individual character’s storyline intersects with each other helped the show establish the narrative formula to service its four leads. More than its impact on “Seinfeld” overall, “The Contest” is just a very funny episode, especially as the characters grow antsier from their self-denial. In deciding to make the then-controversial move of focusing an episode on masturbation, “Seinfeld” became the master of its domain in more ways than one.

Jerry and the gang have ascribed behavioral-informed nicknames to many people they encounter, but none as dubious as the Soup Nazi. Appearing in the seventh season episode, aptly titled “The Soup Nazi,” Yev Kassem (Larry Thomas) runs a popular soup stand but is excessively strict about how customers should act on the premises. This earns him his eponymous nickname, but the soups’ deliciousness makes the group make moral compromises to stay on his good side, including Jerry ditching his girlfriend (Alexandra Wentworth). After being banned from the establishment for breaking his rules, Elaine swears revenge on Kassem for the injustice.

Inspired by a real-life feud Seinfeld had with a local restaurant owner, “The Soup Nazi” is immediately recognizable for Kassem’s swiftly delivered catchphrase, “No soup for you!” But even beyond that classic retort, Thomas is easily among the funniest guest stars “Seinfeld” ever had, right down to how he smugly glares at customers. “The Soup Nazi” is also an episode where everyone’s storyline converges relatively early, rather than waiting to see the connective payoff for much of the runtime. With the cast and crew firing on all cylinders creatively, “The Soup Nazi” stands as “Seinfeld” at its very best.