10 Weirdest Episodes of Seinfeld, Ranked | ScreenRant
NBC's beloved sitcom Seinfeld infamously loved to pick apart the minutiae of human interactions and the strange situations that people find themselves in on a daily basis. But in its quest to plumb the depths of everyday life, the famed comedy took Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer - as well as viewers - to some seriously strange places.
Whether the characters go to ridiculous lengths to cover up an embarrassing lie, encounter thoroughly uncanny acquaintances, or come up with hare-brained schemes to get what they want, Seinfeld demonstrates no shortage of bizarre storylines. Although these plots can be hard to swallow at their most extreme, they often pushed the show to break television ground.
10 "The Chicken Roaster" (Season 8, Episode 8)
This episode centers around a trivial development in the gang's life - the opening of a Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken restaurant across the street from Jerry and Kramer's building - but it results in a profound shake-up of the pair's lives. With a bright, chicken-shaped sign blasting neon light through Kramer's window, he and Jerry switch apartments but find themselves swapping personalities too.
Meanwhile, an audit of her work expenses motivates Elaine to fly across the world for Peterman's forgiveness, and Kramer becomes addicted to the restaurant's chicken. It's an amusing episode, if not the show's funniest, but it definitely gets points for zaniness.
9 "The Merv Griffin Show" (Season 9, Episode 6)
This legendary episode features one of Kramer's most bizarre - albeit unusually innocuous - schemes. He finds old setpieces for the titular 1960s talk show in a dumpster and reassembles the set in his apartment. Although he has no crew or cameras, he stages the show every day and even brings on Newman as a co-host.
If that wasn't weird enough, Jerry devises to put his girlfriend to sleep using a heavy meal and a boring movie in order to play with her vintage toys. But Kramer gets him to admit his deceit 'on the air' and then, in a move straight out of Maury, brings her out to confront Jerry. The juxtaposition of Jerry's childishness and Kramer's wackiness is Seinfeld at its best.
8 "The Subway" (Season 3, Episode 13)
In one of the show's famous 'bottle episodes,' Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are all stuck on the subway and experience just about every possible side of New York City public transit. While Elaine starts suffering from cabin fever in the trapped and stalled train, George hits it off with a stranger but ends up being robbed while handcuffed to a bed and having to get back to Jerry's apartment with no clothes.
But Jerry's plotline takes the cake as he actually befriends a naked man in his subway car, a passenger who would be any other commuter's worst nightmare.
7 "The Bizarro Jerry" (Season 8, Episode 3)
It's opposite day in this famously self-referential episode. Elaine decides to stay friends with her ex Kevin after their breakup but finds he's a much more considerate one than Jerry. Things get even weirder when she meets his friends Gene and Feldman, the doppelgängers of George and Kramer, never expecting that the 'Bizarro' trio will actually deem her a bad friend.
Kramer's side plot in this episode is just as odd, as it finds him slipping into a 9-to-5 corporate job after an employee mistakes him for a coworker. In a totally out-of-character move for the always-jobless eccentric, he takes a liking to his new routine but is fired when it's discovered he doesn't perform any real work.
6 "The Marine Biologist" (Season 5, Episode 14)
Seinfeld is known for storylines that string together a number of unlikely coincidences and twists of fate. "The Marine Biologist" takes this exploration of the 'butterfly effect' to the extreme, with an innocent joke Jerry tells Elaine resulting in a tempestuous Russian author injuring a pedestrian by tossing Elaine's organizer out the window. Unbelievably, Elaine and Jerry's attempt to record the author confessing to the results in yet another launched projectile striking the poor woman.
Meanwhile, George famously pretends to be a marine biologist to impress a new date but is then called on to treat a beached whale. In the episode's ultimate twist, he manages to cure the whale, which had been unwittingly injured by Kramer.
5 "The Little Jerry" (Season 8, Episode 11)
The closest Seinfeld comes to spoofing a sports movie is this episode. Kramer is so disgusted by the eggs at the coffee shop that he resolves to buy a hen for its supply of fresh eggs, but inadvertently buys a rooster - "Little Jerry." On the suggestion of Marcelino, a corner store owner who insists on publicly displaying a bounced check of Jerry's, Kramer begins training the bird to fight.
Thankfully, viewers don't have to witness the bloodsport, as Kramer dives into the ring to protect Little Jerry and is attacked by his opponent. The image of Jerry, dressed in sweats and boxing mitts and fielding pecks from a rooster, stands out as one of the show's weirdest.
4 "The Voice" (Season 9, Episode 2)
It's well known that as Seinfeld progressed over nine seasons, it graduated from explorations of banal but humorous situations to more obviously bizarre plotlines - and "The Voice" is a perfect example.
Jerry's girlfriend's nighttime stomach grumbling keeps him up at night, so he develops that 'voice' into a persona and begins greeting everyone (including her) in character. At the end of the episode, Jerry tries to warn her that Kramer is about to push his newest invention as Kramerica Industries, a giant rubber bladder full of oil, out a window, but she thinks he's using 'the voice' and doesn't heed his call. It's one of the silliest collisions of disparate plotlines in the show's history.
3 "The Susie" (Season 8, Episode 15)
One of Elaine's most hilariously unbelievable plotlines finds her wrapped up in an elaborate lie at the J. Peterman Catalog. Her colleague mistakes her for "Susie" and, after Elaine fails to correct her, trash talks Elaine right to her face. Elaine tells J. Peterman that Susie has died, but has to attend "Susie's" funeral and, on orders from her boss, even run a charitable foundation in her alias's name.
Kramer and George's plot is no less odd, as it finds Kramer breaking up with George on behalf of George's girlfriend (at a romantic dinner, no less) - and George begging Kramer to take him back.
2 "The Bris" (Season 5, Episode 5)
"The Bris" is easily one of the show's wildest episodes. It opens with George's car being destroyed in a tragic incident, which sets off his quest to get to the hospital, whose parking spot he used, to reimburse him for the damage. Jerry and Elaine must organize the bris for their friend's newborn, but the mohel they hire is so agitated that he makes Jerry flinch at exactly the wrong moment.
The episode's second trip to the hospital for Jerry's hand injury finds Kramer releasing a patient he suspects to be half pig. In a fitting conclusion to the absurd episode, the "pig-man" escapes by stealing George's car.
1 "The Betrayal" (Season 9, Episode 8)
This episode represents the pinnacle of Seinfeld's bizarre humor not only for its plot but for its creative and innovative structure. Fans will recall that "The Betrayal" is composed of short vignettes that are shown in reverse order, gradually revealing how Elaine, Jerry, and George ended up ruining Sue Ellen Mischke's destination wedding.
Perhaps even more bemusing than the main storyline is Kramer's B-plot, which although initially incomprehensible, eventually comes into focus as a desperate quest to undo his friend FDR's birthday wish that he drops dead.
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