Seinfeld is the most quotable television show in history. Not every episode is equally quotable — some are funnier in motion than in recalled lines. But the most quotable episodes produced language that has outlasted the show itself. Here are the ten that gave us the most.
The Opposite — 'My name is George. I'm unemployed and I live with my parents.' 'It's not a lie if you believe it.' Philosophy as comedy, producing lines that function as standalone observations.
The Junior Mint — 'It's chocolate, it's peppermint, it's delicious.' The defence of the Junior Mint as a medical intervention is one of the show's great comic arguments.
The Marine Biologist — 'The sea was angry that day, my friends, like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.' One of the show's greatest extended pieces of writing, producing a line quoted in contexts that have nothing to do with marine biology.
The Yada Yada — the episode that gave 'yada yada yada' its definitive cultural moment. 'She yada yada'd sex.' The Puffy Shirt — 'But I don't wanna be a pirate!' 'Low talker.' Two new terms and Jerry's finest indignant line. The Soup Nazi — 'No soup for you!' 'Next!' Every line the Soup Nazi speaks is a verdict.
The Contest — 'I'm out.' 'Master of your domain.' 'Still in the running.' Euphemisms for an unnameable subject that are now understood by people who have never seen the episode.
The Strike — 'A Festivus for the rest of us.' 'I've got a lot of problems with you people.' 'It's a Festivus miracle!' The Strike produced more permanently quotable lines than almost anything else in the show's run.
The Outing — 'Not that there's anything wrong with that.' The most transferable line the show ever produced, applicable to any situation, used by people who have never seen Seinfeld.
The Outing is the correct number one because it produced the most transferable phrase in the show's history — applicable to any situation, in any context, to qualify any statement that might be misunderstood as judgment. This is the highest possible measure of a quotable episode: language that escapes the show and becomes useful in conversations the show never anticipated.