Seinfeld is the most influential TV sitcom ever made. Unlike many of its contemporary sitcoms, the jokes and punchlines and deliveries land just as well today as they did back then.
There are 180 episodes of Seinfeld over 9 seasons, all of which have iconic hilarious moments.
Rewatching the show will remind you how absolutely jam-packed the episodes are with absurd intertwining storylines that always come together at the end in a glorious collision of comedy.
But maybe you don't have the time to rewatch the entire series. In which case, you can just as well revisit the best episodes—they're mostly self-contained, so you can drop in at any time.
Here's our list of the best Seinfeld episodes of all time, ranked for your convenience.
How to Watch Seinfeld
DVD or Blu-ray collections are the best way to watch (or re-watch) your favorite shows like Seinfeld. It's great having your own copy without having to worry about if the show is going to remain on your preferred streaming service.
For example, as of this writing, you can stream Seinfeld on Hulu—but the series is leaving the platform in June 2021 and moving to Netflix later in the year.
With a DVD or Blu-ray collection, you can watch whenever you want without chasing your favorite shows from service to service.
15. The Raincoats Part 1 & 2 (Season 5, Episodes 18/19)
In The Raincoats, Newman sees Jerry and his girlfriend making out during a theatrical showing of Schindler's List and ends up telling both of their parents. His girlfriend's father then forbids her to date Jerry. Hilarious and memorable!
14. The Barber (Season 5, Episode 8)
In The Barber Jerry tries to avoid getting a haircut from his usual barber and tries to have the man's nephew do the haircut instead. George's plotline is the funniest part of the episode though.
He's unsure whether he's hired at a job and just decides to pretend that he works at the company until the boss returns from vacation.
13. The Fire (Season 5, Episode 20)
This episode features George Costanza in what might be his character's most defining moment.
He gets spooked by a small fire at a children's party and pushes old women and children out of his way to escape. The fire is small enough that the clown puts it out with his shoe.
George tries to justify his actions by saying he was leading everyone in the right direction. This scene is peak George Costanza and one of the funniest moments of this show.
12. The Junior Mint (Season 4, Episode 19)
There's a great part in this episode where Kramer is observing an operation and drops a junior mint into the body from the viewing gallery. Later the doctor attributes his patients recovery to "something from above" as Kramer offers him a junior mint.
11. The Little Kicks (Season 8, Episode 4)
This is the one where we're introduced to the famously bad Elaine dance. The dance moves were inspired by a former boss of the episode's writer.
10. The Cadillac Part 1 & 2 (Season 7, Episodes 14/15)
The best part of these episodes is the game of cat-and-mouse between Kramer and the cable guy.
Kramer has been getting HBO and Showtime for free and the cable company needs to get into his apartment to disable the channels. He makes sure he's not there when the cable guy comes in retaliation for making him wait nine hours for the installation.
9. The Bubble Boy (Season 4, Episode 7)
This episode has one of the most iconic scenes of the series. George plays a game of Trivial Pursuit with a man quarantined in a bubble due to an immune deficiency.
George asks a question the answer to which is the "Moors" but the card has a typo that reads "Moops." George won't let it go and neither will the bubble boy and the whole affair ends with George being choked and the bubble ripping and deflating.
8. The Calzone (Season 7, Episode 20)
Georges boss becomes obsessed with having the same calzones that George has been having for lunch.
George gets banned from the calzone restaurant and has to make an arrangement with Newman to supply the food. But Newman doesn't work in the rain so Kramer gets involved. Hilarity ensues!
7. The Shower Head (Season 7, Episode 15)
The funniest part of this episode is when Elaine fails a drug test because she recently ate a poppy seed bagel. The reaction of Elaine's boss to her positive result is one of the funniest moments of the show. He has some great euphemisms for the drug, like "White lotus" and "Yam-yam" and "Shanghai Sally."
He goes on to say, "I know what you're going through. I too once fell under the spell of opium. It was 1979. I was traveling the Yangtze in search of a Mongolian horsehair vest. I had got to the market after sundown. All of the clothing traders had gone, but a different sort of trader still lurked about. 'Just a taste,' he said. That was all it took. Oh, Elaine, the toll road of denial is a long and dangerous one. The price? Your soul. "
6. The Van Buren Boys (Season 8, Episode 14)
Kramer gets out of a potentially bad situation with a street gang known as The Van Buren Boys by mistakenly flashing their gang sign. George offends one of The Van Buren Boys and wants to Kramer to show him the gang sign so he can escape their retribution.
The problem is that Kramer sold his life story to Elaine's boss. Kramer can't reveal the gang sign because it would violate his contract. George tries to improvise and it doesn't go well.
5. The Merv Griffin Show (Season 9, Episode 6)
Kramer finds the discarded set of the Merv Griffin Show in a dumpster and sets it up in his apartment. He starts acting like he is on air and everyone who enters his apartment is treated like a talk show guest.
The episode ends with George getting attacked by a hawk after Kramer changes the non-existent show's format to "scandals and animals" due to ratings concerns.
4. The Library (Season 3, Episode 5)
Jerry is hounded by Lt. Bookman—a library investigations officer—for an overdue book fine from 1971. Lt. Bookman is a hardnosed no nonsense detective who acts like he is working a murder case where Jerry is the killer. This character is hilarious and his scenes are some of the best in the series.
3. The Bottle Deposit Part 1&2 (Season 7, Episode 21 and 22)
In this two-part episode, Kramer and Newman try to run a scam where they return bottles from New York for a higher deposit in Michigan. The multiple plotlines converge hilariously in this episode.
2. The Rye (Season 7, Episode 11)
The main plot line in The Rye begins with George's parents bringing a marble rye to a dinner party at his in-law's house. The in-law's don't serve it at dinner so George's father takes it home with him. The rest of the episode involves George trying to sneak a marble rye back into his in-law's house.
1. The Marine Biologist (Season 5, Episode 14)
Jerry Seinfeld has said that The Marine Biologist is one of his favorite episodes. George's ending monologue is one of the best moments of the entire series.
The monologue wasn't included in the original script. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld came up with it in a late night last minute rush. There was no time to rehearse the scene but Jason Alexander nailed it on the first take regardless.
