On July 5th, 1989, the entire landscape of television was changed forever and the comedy gained a new brother with the iconic sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm). Over the years, this popular series was said to be a show about nothing, but on the contrary, it's a program about life's little peccadillos and social graces.
The characters in Seinfeld explore the everyday nuances of friendships, love, work, community interactions and play out what should be right and wrong. It's a phenomenal and hilarious batter of chocolate babka that culminates in some of the best and funniest sequences ever filmed for the small screen. Here are the 10 Funniest Moments in Seinfeld, Ranked.
Seinfeld Becomes Kramer
The two friends Seinfeld and Kramer couldn't be more opposite in personality from each other. Seinfeld is usually calm and collected and is always quick to choose his words before he speakers along with thinking before any action. Kramer on the other hand immediately dives headfirst into any idea with a burst of energy and a war cry. In The Chicken Roaster episode, a new restaurant from Kenny Rogers opens up across from Seinfeld's apartment with a giant red sign that throws Kramer off his schedule. Kramer proposes to switch apartments with Jerry for a little while, which has Jerry taking on all the mannerisms of the manic Kramer and vice/versa. Jerry has never eaten ice cream or said yes to anything so fast.
Man Hands Lends A Hand At Dinner
Things get a bit strange in The Bizarro Jerry episode as Jerry, Kramer, George, and Elaine find themselves in their obverse daily lives. Elaine breaks up with her soul mate, George somehow impresses some beautiful women, Kramer takes a job for no pay, and Jerry ends up dating a woman with large hands he dubs "man-hands".
The moment that is painstakingly funny is when the two are on a dinner date where Jerry can't get over the size of her gigantic hands, as she is able to crack open a beer bottle with no problem, break a cooked lobster shell in half with zero utensils, and tries to clean Jerry's face at the dinner table. "That's a twist-off?, Jerry asks is one of the finer moments of comedy.
The Telemarketing Call
In the fourth season of the show, the NBC execs are gearing up to put Seinfeld's comedic act up for a television show, which is just as Inception-like as it sounds. Everyone wants a piece of the action which leads George to bring over one of the executives to Jerry's apartment for a pitch meeting. Right as they walk in, Jerry's phone rings with a pesky telemarketer on the other end. Jerry's response is what everyone has wanted to say to a telemarketer since the beginning of time, which is reversing the role on them. It's pitch-perfect, well delivered, smart, and very funny.
George's Big Comeback Insult
George Constanza doesn't usually have a way with words and mostly ends up with his foot in his mouth. In The Comeback episode, George is eating a ton of shrimp cocktail, which prompts a fellow employee to make a joke at his expense. George doesn't know what to say immediately but thinks of something great later on. A few days go by and George hatches this brilliant scheme to get his comeback insult heard, even supplying a ton of cocktail shrimp for himself at the office as he stuffs his face with the shellfish. The insult is hurled, which prompts George to stand up proudly and say, "The jerk store called, and they ran out of you." This leads to more insults from both sides that downward spirals quickly in perfect Constanza fashion.
Kramer Reads The VCR Manual
A truly remarkable moment in the Seinfeld series is a complete throwaway joke that lasts less than ten seconds, but it's one of the funniest sequences in the show and gives even more bizarre insight to Kramer as a person. In the episode The Strike, which made Festivus for the rest of us popular, Kramer is lying on Jerry's couch, waiting for everyone to come back home. Jerry walks in and sees Kramer's head on the couch pillow, feet up on the armrest, reading in silent delight. The reading material is the instruction manual for Jerry's VCR, which prompts Jerry to simply ask, "Why?" Kramer's response was funny and fantastic, "We all can't be reading the classics, Professor Highbrow." The little dialogue exchange is pure genius.
Jerry Calls His Car Thief
This third season episode labeled The Alternate Side had a laugh out loud moment when Jerry realizes someone stole his vehicle. Jerry contemplates calling the police, but George convinces him to call his car-phone to see if the thief answers. Luckily, the thief does, which leads into a polite conversation about stealing Jerry's car, if he'll return it, and why he did the criminal act.
Kramer gets on the line and asks the thief if his gloves are still in the car, which they are and the thief drops them off for Kramer. It's a wonderfully delightful exchange in what's to be a suspenseful moment for anyone else except for Seinfeld, who thinks pretzels cause a severe thirst.
George Defends His Shrinkage
When the gang goes to the Hamptons for a vacation, George is changing out of his bathing suit when Seinfeld's girlfriend walks in on him stark naked. She looks down, laughs, and leaves the room, causing George to yell, "The pool was cold!" Later on, Goerge is still stuck on this notion that certain things caused this shrinking phenomenon on his person, which Seinfeld called shrinkage, which caused a big discussion of what men universally go through from time to time. "It looked light a frightened turtle" is the perfect description of this unfortunate and hilarious sequence.
Jerry Turns Into a Pirate
At the behest of a soft talker, Jerry agrees to wear a shirt that would only make a pirate smile, which is a big white puffy shirt before he's to go on live television and advocate clothes for the homeless. The sight of this puffy shirt is priceless and funny enough, but it's the interactions between Kramer and Elaine that make this iconic moment so perfect.
Of course, Kramer loves the shirt and coaxes Jerry to still wear it, but when Elaine walks in, she immediately laughs and is horrified at the clothing option, which Jerry tries to explain. What a lovely fashion-friendly moment.
George Gets Deep With a Whale
"The sea was angry that day, my friends" is a piece of dialogue that can be uttered every day for years and still garner side-splitting laughs. For some reason in the Marine Biologist episode, Jerry tells a former crush of George that he's now a marine biologist, which leads her to him. The two are on a date and George's non-expertise is called into action when a beached whale appears on the coast and George must save the day. Later on at the deli, Constanza tells the impressive tale as if he were reciting something out of the Holy Bible.
Kramer's Out
In The Contest episode, the four friends make a bet to see if everyone can be "the master of their domain", which is a turbulent bet when a female nudist moves in across the street. The guys are constantly peeping a look at this naked woman when Elaine walks in and tries to talk with them, She even says something about being an astronaut, to which they reply, “Yeah the waitress should’ve sent it back”, as they are so enamored with this woman. Without any warning, Kramer silently escapes to his own apartment and appears a couple of minutes later and slams his betting money on the counter signifying he lost the bet. It's one of the funniest moments in television history.