If you’ve never seen “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee,” now is the time to start. The entire series has moved over to Netflix from Crackle, and the new season has arrived. The show is everything the title promises in easily digestible packages: stylish and exotic cars, lots of food and coffee porn and mindless chatter between comedians who genuinely enjoy each other’s company. But the new season brings the episode count to 72, and Netflix unhelpfully decided to jumble all of them from the order they were originally released. So where to start? While they’re all pleasant, these are some of the most surprising, enjoyable episodes of what might truly be Jerry Seinfeld’s show about nothing, from oldest to newest.
Larry David
“Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” might’ve peaked with its very first episode, a true “Seinfeld” reunion between Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that has the two in stitches. Larry is at his curmudgeonly best, and Seinfeld goads him on what a truly unhinged, “debauched” Larry David actually looks like, be it eating a salad he doesn’t really care for and never eating two pieces of pizza. “You have finally done a show about nothing,” David says.
Michael Richards
Michael Richards says the more time he spends with Seinfeld, the more he becomes Kramer. And he is a perfect wild man in this episode. After Seinfeld pulls up to Richards’ home in a colorful rust bucket of a ’70s VW van, Richards takes them on a diversion to Sugar Ray Leonard’s house, which actually turns out to be comedian Jay Mohr’s home. He later tells an absolutely engrossing story about losing a game of chess to a homeless guy on the street. And the episode closes with a touching moment of Richards reflecting on his infamous, racist stand-up set at the Laugh Factory.
Jimmy Fallon
“You’re doing me again,” Seinfeld says to Jimmy Fallon, who can’t quite help himself in impersonating Seinfeld whenever he’s next to him. Seinfeld enjoyed Jimmy’s company so much, this is the only double episode of “Comedians in Cars.” The real standout moment comes in the first of the two, when Seinfeld takes his pants off to reveal a pair of rainbow colored swim trunks and backs a boat into a lake. “Jerry Seinfeld has lost his mind,” Fallon says before they go boating to the tune of the “Flipper” theme song.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Yet another “Seinfeld” reunion makes this list, and the brother-sister dynamic between Jerry and Julia Louis-Dreyfus is as sharp as ever. They happen to drive past Hilary Swank on the street, finish each other’s sentences and seem to compete as to which one of them is the bigger jerk when they’re together. At one point, Louis-Dreyfus takes a call from Seinfeld’s wife Jessica to get a tutorial on how to sign up for the “VIP Preview” on Net-a-Porter. “Thank you for training him to become a human being, because what I was dealing with was…well anyway,” she says.
Jim Carrey
This segment predates Jim Carrey’s viral red carpet interview where he got incredibly deep and existential, making everyone wonder just what the guy from “Ace Ventura” was on about. He gives flashes of those same comments even though Seinfeld hardly seems to notice. Carrey though, driving around in an appropriately insane Lamborghini Countach, is entirely his spiritual and silly self in this “Comedians in Cars,” hilariously clambering over the gate to his own home and giving Jerry a rare look inside his painting studio.
Stephen Colbert
Jerry caught up with Colbert when he had the full Letterman beard in between “The Colbert Report” and taking over “The Late Show,” and his spot is the perfect mix of silly and intellectual, absurd and profound, whether it’s Colbert doing a pitch-perfect pantomime of a guy smoking a pipe or quoting lyrics from a Neutral Milk Hotel song about the afterlife. “Is that an antacid,” Jerry perfectly deadpans in response.
Barack Obama
Only Jerry Seinfeld could do an interview with Barack Obama and not ask him a substantive question about literally anything. Seinfeld is curious about everything from Obama’s morning routine to parading around in his underwear to whether he’s ever had to use the thermostat at the White House. And Seinfeld picked possibly the coolest car imaginable, a classic blue ’63 Stingray Corvette, that Obama looks right at home in.
John Oliver
Is there anyone who’s better at being self-deprecating when he’s not talking politics than John Oliver? He seems to be in especially sad sack mode here, telling Jerry about the time all six people walked out of one of his early shows, to how he walked back a comment to his veteran wife about calling one of his gigs “a war zone.”
Kristen Wiig
“I knew the moment I got comfortable there was the moment I had to leave,” Kristen Wiig says about being on “SNL.” This episode of “Comedians in Cars” helps you get to know Wiig much more than some of the guests in other episodes, where Seinfeld is generally the star. She opens up about being a struggling comic in Los Angeles, about getting panic attacks at parties and about the origins of her “Aunt Linda” character, all while driving around in a kitschy old Volvo.
Lewis Black
Seinfeld can barely focus on holding a conversation between Lewis Black’s hysterical and profane bursts of road rage inside their black (naturally) Cadillac. Eventually Seinfeld gets to his theory that Black’s entire career success is thanks to his insane fingers, and it’s hard to disagree. You may not however agree with their takes on political correctness, but it’s good food for thought you won’t get on another talk show.
Ellen DeGeneres
As Seinfeld has grown more bitter with age, Ellen DeGeneres has only gotten more likable. As his guest on the new season, it’s a hilarious combination when the TV host tells stories about her Johnny Carson appearance, and makes Jerry feel humbled by her genuine niceness, not to mention fall for one of her signature pranks.
Kate McKinnon
Seinfeld refers to Kate McKinnon as an “SNL” rock star. She’s a dynamo in this new episode, rattling off a fully realized Irish character describing what Jerry’s hometown of Massapequa must be like, nearly putting him in stitches as she rolls up a fake cigarette and dons a whole new personality in an instant.
