10 Best Seinfeld Episodes Written By Larry David

Summary

• Larry David’s unique comic sensibility shines in Seinfeld.
• Seinfeld’s iconic episodes like “The Contest” and “The Big Salad” reflect David’s comedic revolution.
• Each Seinfeld episode penned by David offers clever writing and refreshing takes on everyday situations.

Larry David’s voice was a huge reason why Seinfeld was so idiosyncratic, and he wrote some of the show’s very best episodes. David famously co-created the series with Jerry Seinfeld and based the character of Jerry’s best friend, George Costanza, on himself. While David was the unsung hero of Seinfeld throughout its nine-season run, he would later become an icon in his own right for creating, writing, and starring as a fictionalized version of himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm.Curb took Seinfeld’s satirical deconstruction of the mundanity of everyday life to the next level with improvised dialogue and meta casting.

David’s contributions to Seinfeld have since been retroactively appreciated, as the unique comic sensibility that would later drive Curb can be seen all over Seinfeld. George almost plays like a prototype for the persona that David would adopt in Curb. Throughout its nine seasons, David wrote or co-wrote some of Seinfeld’s greatest episodes. From the ingenious double entendres of “The Contest” to the brilliantly self-contained storytelling of “The Chinese Restaurant,” David revolutionized the way that TV comedies are written with his work on Seinfeld.

Larry David was also a writer and performer on the ABC sketch comedy show
Fridays
(1980–1982).

10 The Big Salad

Season 6, Episode 2

George’s storyline in season 6, episode 2, “The Big Salad,” is just petty enough that it could’ve happened to Larry in Curb Your Enthusiasm. So, it’s no surprise that this episode was written by David himself. After Elaine asks George to pick her up a “big salad” from Monk’s Café, he and his girlfriend Julie bring it up to her at Jerry’s apartment. When Julie hands Elaine the salad, Elaine thanks her for it – and, much to George’s dismay, Julie accepts the thanks.

George makes sure Elaine knows that he was the one who paid for the big salad, which causes problems with Julie. This is a classic Seinfeld premise, because it seems frivolous, but it’s also understandable that George would want to take credit where credit is due. “The Big Salad” is a perfect Seinfeld episode.

9 The Mango

Season 5, Episode 1

David co-wrote Seinfeld’s season 5 premiere, “The Mango,” with Lawrence H. Levy. The episode leaves Jerry spiraling after Elaine reveals that she faked all her orgasms when they were together. Meanwhile, George worries that his current girlfriend is faking her orgasms and Kramer struggles to get his hands on decent fruit after being banned from his favorite fruit stand. These storylines converge in classic Seinfeld fashion when it’s discovered that Kramer’s mangos are a powerful aphrodisiac.

It would normally be off-limits for a primetime show on NBC to talk about faking orgasms, but David and Levy’s script got around it with sneaky wordplay.

“The Mango” is a classic example of Seinfeld using clever writing to discuss topics that would otherwise be censored on network television. It would normally be off-limits for a primetime show on NBC to talk about faking orgasms, but David and Levy’s script got around it with sneaky wordplay. This episode highlights Elaine’s agency and frankness, which was revolutionary for female characters at the time.

8 The Dinner Party

Season 13, Episode 5

Trust Larry David to take a premise as simple as Jerry and the gang picking up wine on the way to a dinner party and spin it into comedy gold. As with all the best Seinfeld episodes, season 5, episode 13, “The Dinner Party,” starts off with a relatable everyday situation: Jerry and co. are getting ready to attend a dinner party at a friend’s apartment. They decide to stop off and get a cake and a bottle of wine first, which leads to unexpected comic misadventures.

Jerry and Elaine get stuck at the back of the line at the bakery, while George and Kramer get double-parked outside the liquor store. This episode digs into the pointlessness of most social niceties. It builds to a perfect punchline: by the time they get to the party, the gang is so exhausted that they just drop off the cake and the wine and leave.

7 The Opposite

Season 5, Episode 22

David co-wrote the season 5 finale – season 5, episode 22, “The Opposite” – with his fellow co-creator Jerry Seinfeld and staff writer Andy Cowan. The episode begins with George coming to the realization that every instinct he’s ever had has been completely wrong. He’s alone, he’s unemployed, and he lives with his parents. So, he decides to start doing the opposite of whatever his instincts tell him. Within a couple of days, to George’s delight, he has a beautiful girlfriend, his dream job, and his own apartment.

The idea that someone’s natural instincts could be so consistently wrong that doing the exact opposite is the key to success is such a juicy comedic premise. And George was the perfect character for it. This A-story is complemented hilariously with the other characters’ storylines, as Elaine becomes the new George, failing miserably at every turn, and Jerry comes up even.

6 The Cadillac

Season 7, Episodes 14 And 15

David and Seinfeld co-wrote the classic two-parter “The Cadillac” – season 7, episodes 14 and 15 – which sees Jerry coming into some money and using it to buy his parents a fancy new car. In true Seinfeld fashion, a harmless attempt to do something nice yields disastrous unintended consequences. Morty’s new car alienates his friends at Del Boca Vista and gets him impeached as the president of the condo board, culminating in a great shot-for-shot parody of Nixon.

This episode fires on all cylinders, and even at 42 minutes, it doesn’t feel a second too long.

The other characters each have their own hilarious storylines that are strong enough to be A-plots in their own episodes. Kramer keeps stringing the cable guy along in a diabolical revenge scheme, while George is obsessed with his would-be romance with Marisa Tomei. This episode fires on all cylinders, and even at 42 minutes, it doesn’t feel a second too long.

DID YOU KNOW: Throughout the series, Jerry had a total of 66 different girlfriends!

5 The Pen

Season 3, Episode 3

David first introduced the insanity of Morty and Helen’s Floridian retirement community in season 3, episode 3, “The Pen.” Jerry and Elaine travel down to Florida to visit Jerry’s parents for a weekend. Jerry’s dad is being honored at a ceremony as the outgoing condo board president, and Jerry is going to host the event. When Morty’s neighbor Jack Klompus stops by and shows off his “astronaut pen,” which writes upside down, Jerry off-handedly compliments the pen.

Jack offers Jerry the pen and insists that he take it, so Jerry does. Little does he know, this will set off a catastrophic chain of events. Rumors start to spread around the community that Jerry forced Jack to give him the pen, which gives the Seinfelds a bad name and ultimately ruins Morty’s event. “The Pen” was a perfect introduction to the craziness of Jerry’s parents and their social circle, which would become one of the funniest recurring elements of the series.

4 The Puffy Shirt

Season 5, Episode 2

David named season 5, episode 2, “The Puffy Shirt,” as one of his favorite episodes of the series when he met a diehard Seinfeld fan in the fictional world of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The episode sees Kramer dating a “low talker” who mumbles so quietly that it’s hard to understand her. Jerry unwittingly agrees to wear her latest fashion design – a ruffled buccaneer-style blouse – on live television. The shirt itself is a great visual gag; it’s hideous, and everyone except Kramer and his girlfriend can see it.

“The Puffy Shirt” has one of Seinfeld’s best examples of dovetailing storylines. Jerry’s mishap with the puffy shirt runs concurrently with George’s burgeoning career as a hand model. Just when George’s modeling career is about to take off, he’s overheard mocking the puffy shirt and the low talker pushes him hand-first into a scorching-hot iron.

3 The Parking Garage

Season 3, Episode 6

Season 3, episode 6, “The Parking Garage,” sees the gang returning from a shopping mall in New Jersey and finding that they’ve forgotten where they parked the car. They spend the entire episode wandering around the parking garage, trying to find their car. And by the time one of them finds it, they’ve split up from the rest of the group and can’t find them. It’s like a comedic spin on a dystopian Twilight Zone storyline.

According to the DVD commentary, the funniest moment in the episode wasn’t actually in David’s script. “The Parking Garage” reaches a pitch-perfect punchline when all four characters finally make it back to the car, get inside, and the engine won’t start. The script called for them to just drive away, but the car actually wouldn’t start. This behind-the-scenes snafu created one of Seinfeld’s funniest endings.

2 The Chinese Restaurant

Season 2, Episode 11

Seinfeld’s self-applied moniker, “the show about nothing,” is epitomized by season 2, episode 11, “The Chinese Restaurant.” The episode opens with Jerry, George, and Elaine arriving at a Chinese restaurant and asking for a table, then spends its entire half-hour runtime with the trio waiting for a table to become available. The genius of David and Seinfeld’s script is that, despite its single setting and hilariously mundane premise, it’s a really eventful episode.

George’s relationship is hanging in the balance, so he’s eagerly waiting to use the phone and patch things up. Elaine is losing a battle with hunger, and Jerry’s run-in with a family acquaintance sets off a chain reaction that lands him in big trouble with his uncle. There’s so much going on with the characters that it doesn’t feel like a bottle episode.

1 The Contest

Season 4, Episode 11

Arguably David’s greatest Seinfeld script – and maybe the greatest episode of the entire series – is season 4, episode 11, “The Contest.” After George’s mother catches him in a compromising position, he vows to never masturbate ever again. Jerry doesn’t believe he can do it, so the group enters a lewd contest to see who can go the longest without pleasuring themselves. And so begins one of the filthiest (and most groundbreaking) episodes of television ever produced.

David won a much-deserved Emmy for writing “The Contest,” and it’s no wonder why. This script is a masterclass in dodging network censors. David managed to write an entire half-hour Seinfeld episode about masturbation without using the word “masturbation” once. Instead, he uses euphemisms like “treating your body like an amusement park.” This episode perfectly exemplifies David’s comedic genius.