The Best Seinfeld Season 2 Episode According To IMDb

There has never been a show (about nothing) quite like "Seinfeld." The massively popular series went against most sitcom conventions, and its success proved that, above all else, relatable humor works no matter how you package it. As they say in Hollywood (after something succeeds, of course), funny is money.

Created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), "Seinfeld" is typically just a day in the New York life of stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and the oddball characters who populate his orbit. This includes the persnickety Elaine Benes (Julia Loius-Dreyfus), self-loathing George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and eccentric Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Usually, the friends are caught in an awkward situation and undone by their own idiosyncrasies, especially when any of them attempt to start a romance with some poor unsuspecting soul.

Season 2 is chock full of such escapades, like when Jerry and Elaine cook up a recipe for becoming friends with benefits that immediately fails, or when George leaves painfully awkward voicemail messages for a new girlfriend (he ends up trying to steal the recordings). But the highest-rated episode of the season (at least according to IMDb) is a quintessential "Seinfeld" story, and it has nothing to do with dating — more like waiting.

The Season 2 "Seinfeld" episode called "The Chinese Restaurant" is an all-time classic, as suggested by its 8.6 rating on IMDb, the highest of any episode that season. Jerry, Elaine, and George decide to have dinner before seeing "Plan 9 From Outer Space" at the theater. They find a Chinese restaurant and are told it will be five or ten minutes before they can get a table. So, they wait. And wait. And wait. Every time they ask how much longer the wait will be, the host optimistically tells them, "Five, ten minutes." Soon they are trapped in purgatory, where they spend the rest of the episode.

There are a variety of problems to deal with besides the endless wait. Aside from the possibility of missing the movie, Elaine is starving, George needs to use the payphone (cell phones were not ubiquitous in 1991), and Jerry is worried about getting caught in a lie after someone recognizes him. Also, they lose their place in line when the host calls for "Cartwright" instead of "Costanza," because of course they do. But none of that really matters. The fun is in realizing they will never get seated. Naturally, when they give up and leave at the end of the episode, the host calls for "Seinfeld" right after they're gone.

Per an article in Vulture, NBC had all kinds of issues with the script for this episode. Basically, they didn't like the lack of story or the fact that it was about nothing. However, the legacy of "The Chinese Restaurant" proves that the creatives had it right with this installment.