The 20 Best ‘Seinfeld’ Episodes, Ranked

(Season 1, Episode 3)
One of “Seinfeld’s” earliest episodes helped establish the fact that the four main characters were in no way above settling serious issues in incredibly silly ways. Jerry’s (Jerry Seinfeld) apartment is burglarized, so he takes up George (Jason Alexander) on an offer to look at a new one. But then George realizes he wants the apartment too, causing a rift. How do they settle it? A game of odds and evens, which George loses.

(Season 3, Episodes 17 and 18)
“Seinfeld” never did too many celebrity appearances but this two-parter is a notable exception, with both Jerry and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) vying for the attention of professional baseball player Keith Hernandez. Elaine ends up dumping him because he smokes, while Jerry ends things when Keith asks him to help move some furniture. Kramer (Michael Richards) and Newman (Wayne Knight) have their own beef with Hernandez, believing that he spit on them after a Mets game at Shea Stadium, but Jerry demonstrates a “second spitter” theory to vindicate Hernandez. This episode is also George’s first mention of Vandelay Industries, though he had previously used the phony name Art Vandelay in previous episodes.

(Season 2, Episode 9)
“Seinfeld” never went the traditional sitcom route of making two of the main characters pair up beyond this episode, where exes Jerry and Elaine decide to have a casual sexual relationship with a set of ground rules to maintain their friendship. Most memorable perhaps is George’s reaction in the coffee shop the following day, where he picks apart these so-called rules. Naturally, such an arrangement can’t last and the topic of the two getting together barely ever comes up again.

(Season 9, Episode 8)
This episode stands out among all other “Seinfeld” episodes, and all other sitcom episodes in general frankly, because it runs in reverse order. Viewers begin the episode seeing the end of the story before slowly building back to the beginning. The best thing is that even though you only gain the context as the episode goes on, the jokes are funny. From Elaine traveling to India for her “friend” Sue Ellen Mischke’s (Brenda Strong) wedding, to George needing to wear Timberlands to stay eye-to-eye with his new girlfriend, to Kramer hoping to counteract the evil birthday wish of Franklin Delano Romanowski, it all unfolds in reverse and it is all hilarious.

(Season 5, Episode 21)
This episode is forever burned into the American pop culture collective memory for gifting us with the term “shrinkage,” coined by George after Jerry’s girlfriend walks in on him changing after he had been in the pool. It is also memorable when Jerry and Elaine are introduced to a friend’s new baby, only for the two to proclaim afterwards that it is “the ugliest baby” they have ever seen.

(Season 8, Episode 5)
This episode is great due its successful use of Jerry’s Uncle Leo (Len Lesser), who accepts a package for Jerry and ends up losing his eyebrows in a gas explosion. Kramer also causes big problems for both Jerry and George in this episode, getting Jerry accused of mail fraud and convincing George to take part in a racy photo shoot to impress a photo store clerk. Newman also stands out in this episode, as he gets to play interrogator when Jerry gets accused.

(Season 5, Episode 11)
George has never been shy about doing ridiculous things if it means getting a woman’s attention, but this episode took things to another level. George decides he will convert to the Latvian Orthodox church because “Why not?” But in doing so, he puts Kramer in touch with a soon-to-be nun who is powerless against Kramer’s “kavorka,” or “the lure of the animal.”

(Season 8, Episode 6)
This episode is great for a number of reasons: Elaine being intimated by a subordinate in fatigues, leading to her promoting him; Jerry being disgusted that his girlfriend’s mentor is dating the hack comedian Kenny Bania (Steve Hytner); and George trying to weasel out of writing a lecture on risk management. But this episode is truly great because of how it utilizes Jerry Stiller’s performance as Frank Costanza recalling his service as an Army cook in Korea, climaxing in him having a wartime flashback at a Jewish singles night and subsequently overturning a buffet table.

(Season 8, Episode 8)
This episode famously saw Kramer and Jerry swap apartments due to a large neon Kenny Rogers Roasters sign, with the two also swapping mannerisms to a hilarious degree. Kramer, of course, becomes secretly addicted to the chicken but can’t admit it, lest Jerry force him to switch back. Elaine, now heading up the J. Peterman catalog since the real Peterman (John O’Hurley) went mad in the Burmese jungle, is under fire for abusing her expense account, which she used to buy a sable hat for George. George naturally loses the hat when he does a “leave behind” to get a woman to see him again.

(Season 9, Episode 2)
Helloooooooo! Many episodes have dealt with Jerry choosing silly things over a woman, but “The Voice” saw him decide to keep doing a silly voice that she hated rather than keep dating her. This episode also makes the list because it sees George refusing to quit his job despite everyone knowing he faked a physical handicap, as he knows if he stays the company has to pay him his full contract rate. And while Elaine is busy “back sliding” with her hilariously lackadaisical boyfriend David Puddy (Patrick Warburton), Kramer hires himself an intern for Kramerica Industries to test out his rubber bladder system for oil tankers.

(Season 6, Episode 11)
In one of the best dating storylines in the series, Jerry and George invest a great deal of time and effort working out how Jerry can pull of the Roommate Switch — going out with the roommate of the woman he is currently dating. But this episode is best remembered for giving Kramer a first name, which of course was Cosmo, when he reconnects with his mother, Babs (Sheree North). Of course, Babs ends up having an affair with Newman, effectively putting an end to the reunion.

(Season 6, Episode 10)
Jerry dates a woman whose boss turns out to be Jerry’s high school rival, Duncan (Don McManus). Duncan has never forgotten Jerry beat him in a foot race, correctly guessing that Jerry got a head start that allowed him to win. Elsewhere, Elaine dates a communist, whose fiery rhetoric gets Kramer fired from his department store Santa gig when Kramer starts repeating it to kids. Elaine subsequently gets the man blacklisted at his favorite Chinese restaurant while George is suspected of communist ties at work and ends up meeting Fidel Castro.

(Season 9, Episode 10)
The episode that gave the world Festivus, a holiday like no other. Frank Costanza, so disgusted by the frenzy of Christmas shopping, invented his own holiday complete with an aluminum pole, the airing of grievances and feats of strength. But this is also the episode that sees Kramer return to work at H&H Bagels after a 12-year strike, while George decides to invent a fake charity so he can get out of giving his coworkers Christmas gifts.

(Season 4, Episode 17)
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Need I say more?

(Season 4, Episode 11)
One of the most memorable episodes in “Seinfeld” history sees the gang struggling to remain masters of their domain as part of a bet, with Elaine almost landing a date with JFK Jr., and Jerry dating a virgin. The episode has long been held up as one of the best in the show’s history given that it did an entire storyline about masturbation without actually using the word “masturbate.”

(Season 3, Episode 6)
Another quintessential episode about nothing, the “Seinfeld” team broke ground with this episode that centers on the insanely mundane task of finding a car in a parking garage. But the episode also features three of the characters dealing with a ticking clock, one way or another — Jerry has to find a bathroom; Elaine has to get her new goldfish home before it dies; George has to make it back for his parents’ anniversary dinner. The episode memorably ends with the group finding the car only for it not to start, which was a legitimate accident, not part of the script.

(Season 2, Episode 11)
No episode of “Seinfeld” better sums up the “show about nothing” premise better than “The Chinese Restaurant.” The whole episode takes place in the waiting area of, you guessed it, a Chinese restaurant as George, Jerry and Elaine wait for a table. It is now recognized as one of the show’s breakthrough episodes, proving that audiences did not need intricate or emotional storylines to connect with a series. Interestingly, it is also one of the few episodes of the show not to feature Kramer.

(Season 3, Episode 5)
This episode lives and dies on the performance of Philip Baker Hall, who plays the library cop Lt. Joe Bookman. Bookman’s no nonsense approach to recovering an overdue library book from Jerry is hilarious from beginning to end. Bookman’s wrath also extends to a librarian (Ashley Gardner), who takes a shine to Kramer. Meanwhile, George is convinced that a homeless man living in front of the library is in fact his old high school gym teacher, who George got fired after the teacher bullied him and gave him a wedgie. This naturally leads to George getting a wedgie on the steps of the New York Public Library.

(Season 7, Episode 6)
Perhaps no other “Seinfeld” guest actor made more of an impact than Larry Thomas as the titular “Soup Nazi,” a soup stand owner so strict about the procedure for ordering that those who violate it are turned away immediately. To this day people still say his signature line, “No soup for you!” The episode sees Jerry choose the soup over his girlfriend, whose constant cutesy talk with Jerry disgusts both Elaine and George. The episode also famously introduced the couple of Cedric (John Paragon) and Bob (Yul Vasquez), a gay couple who threaten and intimidate Kramer into giving up the armoire he was guarding for Elaine.

(Season 8, Episode 13)
No one takes pettiness further than George Costanza and this episode proves it. George becomes so obsessed with responding to an insult from a coworker that he flies to Ohio when the coworker changes jobs and moves. Granted George’s comeback about “the jerk store” falls flat, but the beauty is in the attempt, right? Meanwhile, Jerry buys a tennis racket from a salesman who turns out to be terrible at tennis, with the salesman then offering Jerry his wife to buy his silence. Elaine becomes involved (sort of) with a sensitive and mysterious video store clerk, and Kramer attempts to set up a living will just in case he goes into a coma.