George Costanza is hands down one of the best, if not the best, characters on Seinfeld.
20. The Airport Magazine
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When George waits for Jerry at the airport, he picks up a Time magazine that's supposed to have a blurb about him. At the same time, a famed convict tries to pick up the magazine while he's in chains, and George refuses to give it to him. This leads to George invoking Bette Davis as he makes fun of the crook while he's carried away.
19. The Doll
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When Susan puts up her old doll collection, George is horrified to find a doll that looks like his mother. For some reason, he has lunch with the doll, and he imagines it yelling at him with his mother's voice. But what really takes the cake is that he talks back to the doll like it is his mother, hilariously displaying the psychological damage she's caused him.
18. O'Brien
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When Jerry and George take someone else's limo from the airport, they soon learn that their ride was for the worst person possible: a Nazi. George inadvertently posed as the leader of the Aryan Union, and he tries to maintain the illusion in front of O'Brien's followers until they can find a way to escape. Of course, he fails, and though he survives the endeavor, he ends up on the news as O'Brien. Nazism has always been a tough subject to tackle in comedy, but seeing George get mistaken for one makes for an insanely funny episode.
17. It's Not You — It's Me
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When George's latest girlfriend breaks up with him, he can't help but wonder why. She gives him the classic "it's not you — it's me" routine, but George sees through it by saying he invented that routine and that it is definitely him. Only George could say that he's the reason for a breakup and somehow find a way to brag.
16. George Thinks It Moved
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When George gets a massage from a male masseuse, his sexual anxieties overcome him when he thinks that "it" moved. George has always been insecure about his sexuality, and the way he picks apart that moment with Jerry is a classic Constanza moment.
15. The Frogger
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When George buys the Frogger machine he played on as a kid, he hatches a scheme to keep the machine running to keep his high score. But when the Frogger begins to lose power, he is forced to move it across the street like he is actually in the game. Sadly for him, when he finally reaches the other side, a truck drives up and destroys the machine, along with his high score.
14. The Parking Space
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After a day of shopping with Elaine, George fights with a guy over a parking space in front of Jerry's apartment. He spends the whole day parked in the street, refusing to give up the spot and admit defeat, showing how badly he needs to get a job. Everyone has fought over a space in the city, but not like George. It wasn't even his car.
13. Vandelay Industries
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In order to extend his unemployment benefits, he tells the unemployment office that he almost got a job at Vandelay Industries, a latex company. He uses Jerry's phone number for the ruse, and he waits for the office to call him to maintain it. But when Kramer answers the phone and ruins everything, George falls out of the john in defeat with his pants down to his ankles. And when Jerry walks in and sees him like this, he can't help but make a crack about him.
12. These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty
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When George picks up a job parking cars, he naturally messes everything up and causes havoc out on the street. At the same time, Kramer gets a job starring in a Woody Allen film, and he shares his one line with the group. When George fails to give a good performance with this line, he has a meltdown and shouts it at the people honking their horns outside the apartment.
11. Independent George
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When Susan starts spending time with Elaine, George is worried that his married life and social life will collide and cause utter destruction for him. in this memorable scene, George explains the situation by describing the two Georges that make up his character, and that this collision of worlds will "kill Independent George."
10. The Outing Pt. 1
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When a woman is pranked into thinking Jerry and George are a couple, the duo is shocked to learn that she is the reporter interviewing them. George tries to defend his heterosexuality while not appearing homophobic, hilariously asking the reporter if she wants to do it with him right then and there. But in the end, he and Jerry are "outed" in the paper.
And things only get crazier.
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Just when Jerry convinces the reporter he is straight, George tries to get his girlfriend to break up with him by convincing her that he is gay and dating Jerry. But once this plan falls apart, instead of being completely honest with her, he claims that he is a porno actor, which also fails to get rid of her. Too bad for Buck Naked.
9. The Switch
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When Jerry becomes attracted to his girlfriend's roommate, he tells George he wants to do "the switch," and the latter is not having it. Though reluctant at first, George sets off with Jerry to pull off the impossible, and after a long day of planning, Constanza bursts into Jerry's apartment in a spectacular eureka moment.
8. The Bubble Boy
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On the way to Susan's family cabin, she and George stop to meet Jerry's biggest fan: the belligerent "bubble boy." As they wait for Jerry to show up, George and the bubble boy play a game of Trivial Pursuit that goes horribly wrong. After arguing with George over a misprint in one of the answer cards, the bubble boy loses it and starts choking him until George pops his bubble by accident.
7. The Fire
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When George goes to a birthday party for his girlfriend's son, things go relatively well until he sees a fire start in the kitchen. In a hilarious panic, he pushes an old lady and a clown (played by Jon Favreau) out of the way and leaves everyone else behind. His cowardice is put on full display here, and he couldn't lie himself out of this one.
6. The Marble Rye
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After his parents take back the marble rye they brought to Susan's parents' house, George tries to replace it without them knowing. Hilarity ensues when Jerry steals a rye from an old lady and George reels it up to the apartment with a fishing rod. But once he claims the bread, he turns around to see Susan and his parents staring at him.
5. The Opposite
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After some soul-searching, George realizes that every decision he's made in his life has been wrong and decides to do the opposite from then on. He inexplicably scores a date with a beautiful woman and a job interview with the New York Yankees. And even when he tells off team owner George Steinbrenner right to his face, he somehow gets the job.
4. Hand Modeling
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In the classic "Puffy Shirt" episode, George becomes a hand model after discovering their delicate beauty. While his hands are being photographed, George learns the hysterically tragic story of his predecessor, Ray McKinley, who was not "master of his domain." He assures his employer that he will not make the same mistake, claiming he "won a contest." Of course, we now know that was a lie, so he had more in common with Ray than we thought.
3. Significant Shrinkage
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While the gang is visiting their friends in the Hamptons, Jerry's girlfriend, Rachel, accidentally sees George in the nude and laughs at what she sees. A traumatized George claims that because he had just gotten out of a cold pool, he had suffered from "shrinkage" and that he was sorely misrepresented. Unfortunately, Rachel shares what she saw with George's girlfriend, and they end up breaking up. Despite his misfortune, we can all thank George for teaching us about shrinkage, something we'll always think of whenever we go swimming.
2. George's Mother Caught Him
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This landmark episode begins with George meeting the gang at the coffee shop, saying that his mother caught him amusing himself and ended up in the hospital. The way George recounts these details makes this scene so much funnier, from him not knowing whether or not he should zip up to him imitating his mother's reaction. At a time when self-pleasure was inappropriate from prime-time TV, George came along and shook the system with his destructive diddling.
1. Marine Biologist
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When George reunites with his high school crush, he pretends to be a marine biologist after Jerry ropes him into it. While they're walking on the beach together, they see a crowd gazing out at a beached whale in need of a marine biologist. George reluctantly goes out to help the great beast, and the way he recounts the story to his friends definitely should've won him an Emmy. But instead, he got a Titleist.