“Seinfeld” is a comfort show of mine that I watch to unwind, have a few laughs, and sometimes even take my mind off stuff. It is one of the greatest TV shows of all time for a reason. As a matter of fact, I have watched “Seinfeld” with someone who claimed to hate sitcoms, and even they had quite a few laughs after watching a single episode. This show uses a variety of different humor styles that make it appealing to many people such as slapstick, irony, dark humor and occasionally even repetition. It is so good of a show that it doesn’t follow a typical sitcom’s format. It never takes itself seriously (which a lot of sitcoms make the mistake of doing) even under certain circumstances that you’d expect it to; which is where the dark humor comes into play. In my opinion it is the perfect show, and it is one of the few shows that I don’t hate a single episode of. I even love the “controversial” episodes such as “The Finale” and “Puerto Rican Day.” But with that said, there are ten episodes that I consider to be the best of the series, and I ranked them below. (Keep in mind, that some of these I love so much due to their secondary plots.)

10. The Engagement (Season 7, Episode 1)

This is a fine example of an episode I love mostly because of its secondary plot. Although I find the pact that Jerry and George make to both get married to their girlfriends hilarious (especially since it sets up one of the funniest and most iconic plots that run throughout the rest of season 7), I think that the treasure of this episode has to be the barking dog that keeps Elaine awake at night. She ends up asking for the help of Newman in a hilariously sick plan to kidnap the dog and drop it off miles away from its home. Newman is my favorite side character in “Seinfeld,” and this episode truly let him be his character to the fullest extent. This episode takes full advantage of Newman’s slimy, villainous, and dark personality, and you can tell Wayne Knight (Newman’s actor) had a blast during this episode.

9. The Apartment (Season 2, Episode 5)

Again, the greatest thing for me in this episode is the secondary plot, where George develops the idea that women are more attracted to a man wearing a wedding ring. He decides to borrow Kramer’s father’s wedding ring to see if it works. Him, Jerry and Elaine end up going to a party for the New York City Marathon where George hilariously finds that wearing the wedding band certainly does get him more attention from women, but every flirtatious encounter ends in “it’s a shame your married”. George would slyly try and convince them he’s single and that it’s a ‘sociological experiment’, but at that point the women are convinced he is trying to cheat on his supposed wife. It is just one of the few unfortunate plans for George that starts off really clever, but doesn’t work out in the end.

8.  The Junior Mint (Season 4, Episode 20)

Yes, one of the dark humor episodes!! This is one of those episodes I would love to show someone who has never seen an episode of “Seinfeld” before. It would give them an idea of what the show is, but also do it in the most intense way possible. To quickly summarize everything, Kramer and Jerry get invited to watch an operation on Elaine’s ex. The two watch from a balcony above the operation table, where Kramer ends up dropping a Junior Mint into Elaine’s cut open ex (mid-operation). This goes unnoticed by the doctors and days later it is found that Elaine’s ex’s condition has worsened, and he is expected to die, leaving Kramer and Jerry to both speculate that it was the Junior Mint! This episode highlights Kramer’s clumsiness that is constantly displayed throughout the show’s entirety. It also shows how fast the show will randomly crank up from zero to a hundred. I absolutely love this episode, as do the critics. This is often talked about as one of the show’s greatest episodes.

7. The Trip: Part 2 (Season 4, Episode 2)

This episode continues from the previous episode from Season 4, where Jerry goes to LA to be on the Late Night Show With Jay Leno. George tags along to find Kramer who disappeared months previous in the same place to audition for a television show. At the same time, a serial killer called ‘the smog strangler’ is on the loose, and after a series of events Kramer winds up getting wrongfully accused of being the same serial killer. Watching this episode for the first time had me practically rolling on the floor with laughter. Seeing Kramer in that position was so unexpected, and seeing him screaming for dear life while getting interrogated for a crime he didn’t commit made me crack up. Michael Richards really went above and beyond as Kramer, and seeing him making a scene in this episode has got to be one of my favorite moments, even though I felt bad for him at the same time. If you have seen just one of Kramer’s above and beyond reactions you will understand where I’m coming from.

6. The Burning (Season 9, Episode 16)

Out of all Elaine’s crazy boyfriends, David Puddy is one hundred percent the best. Patrick Warburton made this guy an extremely iconic character, even though he was only in a handful of episodes. The episode centers around Puddy randomly coming out as a religious man, and basically telling Elaine that she’s going to end up in hell for “stealing his Jesus fish” among other things such as changing the radio stations in his car that were originally set on the Christian rock radio. Sound out of pocket?  “Yeah, that’s right…” If you know you know. David Puddy is a whole vibe.

5. The Note (Season 3, Episode 1)

We all love George… So why is it so funny to watch him get abused by this show!? This is another episode where the secondary plot is where it’s at! George and Elaine end up going to get a massage, and George is horrified to hear his masseuse’s name, “Raymond” from the front desk worker – clearly pointing out that his masseuse will be a man. I won’t get too descriptive with some of the elements in this episode because this is a school newspaper and I’ll get in trouble, but I will say that George’s reactions are pure perfection and make this such an entertaining episode. You can feel George’s discomfort through the screen, which is the magic of Jason Alexander’s acting. Also the whole plot with Jerry’s girlfriend thinking he’s a kidnapper is great, but clearly the secondary plot steals the show. This episode is an overload of laughs from start to finish.

4. The Hamptons (Season 5, Episode 21)

I love so many things about this episode! Every tiny detail and scene is just pure perfection. I die of laughter every time I see this one. Not only that, but something about seeing Jerry and his friends on vacation in this real beach-y kind of place is just so fun. The amazing sets aren’t talked about enough on this show; they really set the mood. In this episode (as I just said) Jerry and his friends go on vacation to see their friends’ baby. Kramer finds somebody else’s lobster trap on the beach and steals them before pressuring Jerry’s girlfriend into eating them in a hilarious dinner scene, and finally (the most iconic part of this episode) George has issues after being in cold water… “Seinfeld” is one of those shows that focuses on relatable characters rather than fairy tale characters that have things simply work out for them, but poor George never gets a break with those embarrassing situations, man. He’s got it rough.

3. The Invitations (Season 7 , Episode 24)

I’d say this episode is quite possibly the darkest and most hilarious “Seinfeld” episode in existence. So as I mentioned with our tenth place episode “The Engagement”, a continuous plot line throughout Season 7 is where George ends up getting engaged to his girlfriend named Susan. As the wedding approaches, George begins having second thoughts about the wedding, but still goes through with it, having occasional attempts at making Susan wanting to call it off and break up with him. Then in this episode George buys extremely cheap wedding invitations to save money. Turns out the envelopes were so cheap because of how old they were, and over time the sticky seal’s glue became toxic. So Susan starts licking all the cards to seal them up. Now I don’t want to spoil anything else for those of you who haven’t seen this episode, but I do want to say this (SO SPOILER ALERT)… You can see the relief in George’s eyes. I was laughing by the end of this episode because of four things, the shock, the darkness, the build up, and the way “Seinfeld” was still being “Seinfeld.” You could practically smell the humor in the air even though the show didn’t flat out address how the characters felt in the situation. You knew what George was thinking deep inside his twisted mind, and it makes this the greatest dark humor episode of “Seinfeld” ever.

2. The Contest (Season 4, Episode 11)

This will be a fun one to explain in the school newspaper. But we did get past “The Note”, so what the heck I’ll give it a shot. I will say this: “Seinfeld” did an extremely good job at hinting at suggestive content with its PG rating. In fact, during the 1990s you could do quite a bit with a PG rating, so arguably “Seinfeld” had more wiggle room to say inappropriate stuff in a more direct way, but chose not to for comedic effect; which is genius in more ways than one. In this episode, Jerry, Kramer, George and Elaine embark on a competitive contest. And… let’s just leave it there. If you know you know, and if you don’t, watch the episode yourself. It is really nothing too bad, especially with the way it is indirectly talked about throughout the episode. If you’re mature enough to handle it then you’ll get the joke. If you’re too young to handle it, then the worst that will happen is things just won’t make sense. But one thing I can say is that it is one of the funniest “Seinfeld” episodes in my opinion. Critics and audiences alike have said that this episode was one of the greatest written episodes out of the entire series. I feel like an idiot for making a big deal out of the “inappropriateness” to begin with, but then again, this is a school newspaper, so I have to explain things without explaining too much.

1.  The Opposite (Season 5, Episode 22)

“My name is George; I’m unemployed and live with my parents.” – George Costanza

My favorite episode! Wanna know why it’s my favorite? Funny you should ask, it is because we finally get to see George get his way… at least for a while. Things finally work out for him when he decides that everything he does in life is wrong. He starts to make the opposite choices as opposed to the typical ones he’d normally make, and ends up living a happier life! As a matter of fact, I find this episode inspirational in a way. I mean, I’m aware it is important to be yourself; but in the same regard George doesn’t really change who he is, but rather embraces who he is while making slightly different choices along the way. Instead of tuna on toast, he has chicken salad on rye. Instead of not talking to an attractive lady at Monk’s Café, George talks to the attractive lady at Monk’s Café. It’s poetry at its finest. It also highlights the true joys of stepping outside your comfort zone and experiencing things you wouldn’t normally experience. I don’t know, maybe I’m thinking too much about the episode’s meaning. Perhaps it was supposed to just be another ironic, roll on the floor laughing episode, but beyond that (for the reasons I listed) make this a really fun episode for me to watch. It is nice to see things work out for a relatable character.

These are my top 10 “Seinfeld” episodes! Some of them I think are traditional choices when considering the greatest of the series, but I chose the ones that most stuck with me after years of watching them. I could go on and on all day about great episodes though (like Season 8’s “The Summer of George” or  Season 5’s “The Stall”). The show has such a pure un-seriousness to it (which is the only way I know to explain it), and it makes it such a joy to come back to. Everyone on the show acts so differently, yet all meet a certain criteria for the show. You look at other shows and their characters, and try to picture them in “Seinfeld’s world, and they just don’t fit in there. Each and every “Seinfeld” character has a certain charm to them that makes them fit in, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. And that is how you know you’ve created a masterpiece! Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are comedic geniuses, and they created something that can never be replicated. But it couldn’t have been created without the talented cast and crew. It truly is a perfect show that required every piece of the puzzle to make it as great as it was.