12 Essential Cups of ‘Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee’ On Netflix

Seinfeld and Netflix want you to start here, because who wouldn’t enjoy a quarter-hour with Jim Carrey, climbing over the front door of his compound and launching into discussions with Seinfeld about Don Knotts and David Letterman? Carrey remains “on” throughout, but it’s more tapping on the car window than hammering you over the head. “Just knocking on the fourth wall, there,” Carrey acknowledges. He’ll also pour sweet drops of sugar from as high as possible, and whether you want to take that literally or figuratively, you’ll enjoy the ride. As the comedians note, it doesn’t take much to make you happy.

Watch the Jim Carrey episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Seinfeld’s a car nut, and he originally convinced auto manufacturers to sponsor his webseries for Crackle — hence, the emphasis on what rare or antique make and model he has chosen to chauffeur around his guest. But Rock’s not having any of it. “If we were in a cab, we’d probably be having the same exact conversation,” he tells Seinfeld. “It’s all about the company.” And he’s right. Some of the conversation topics seem so old now (Conan vs. Leno; Tiger Woods), but the idea that every husband (even Prince) makes the same obligatory phone call to his wife, or that every comedian feels pressured to talk when there’s a microphone around, those are timeless. You’ll also learn how Seinfeld finds inspiration from skateboarders, and how he and Rock react quite differently when they get pulled over in New Jersey. Years before #BlackLivesMatter.

Watch the Chris Rock episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

I don’t think Seinfeld and Fey realize, even now, how much they’re revealing about themselves here. Their jocular disdain for pretty people. Their jealousy of British comedians, who only make six-episode seasons. Their talk about whether comedians can be feminine and funny. Their private trip to get a cronut, back when that was the thing. If only Twitter had taken Fey’s suggestion way back when and hired her to distribute licenses to keep the trolls and riff-raff off of that platform.

Watch the Tina Fey episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Could you imagine Trump doing this? Please don’t. Instead watch this. For all of the bits Seinfeld and the former president obviously pre-planned, it’s when Obama takes Jerry into what looks like a regular old break room deep in the White House, where they make their own cups of coffee and sit for a chat, that’s where the magic happens. Where they can share their common amazement at how Larry David applies sunscreen. Where Obama compares politics to football. And where he describes why some world leaders may go insane. As for him, Seinfeld asks Obama: “What’s your most embarrassing president moment?”

“This may be it.”

Watch the Barack Obama episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Howard Stern has a way of becoming the interviewer even when he’s the talk-show guest, and this is no exception. But you can tell that these two are close. Close enough for Stern to talk about a childhood memory that inspired him into a radio career. Close enough for Seinfeld to mock Stern’s hairdo: “I don’t even know what the look is. Is it Slash or Rhea Perlman?” Plus, for no apparent reason, Donald Trump comes up in conversation while they sit in a diner in my own neighborhood. Stern says, unprovoked, of Trump: “I think he’s one of the best radio guests ever. He comes on and he will say whatever is on his mind. Some of the best interviews with him that, you would never do this, but, he sits down, and I go, ‘Donald. I don’t care about financial advice. I don’t care about any of that stuff.’ I say, ‘Talk to me about women.’ And I will name women, and he will give, evaluate them on a scale of 1-10. And he is brutal!” Is anyone surprised now?

Watch the Howard Stern episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Watch this just to enjoy the nightly routine of two comedy legends, truly best friends forever.

Watch Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks on Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Seinfeld reunites with each of his Seinfeld co-stars, and since you’ll want to watch one, this is the only one to watch. There’s no agenda here, unlike his Super Bowl ad with Jason Alexander or his mea culpa olive branch for Michael Richards. Just two great comedians, reminiscing about their classic sitcom and continuing to rib each other. “I think you can be nice,” she tells him at one point. “Anyone can be nice! Hitler can be nice,” Seinfeld replies. Louis-Dreyfus, deadpan: “Well, you’re nicer than Hitler.” You also get to watch them kid each other over who’ll be the nicer celebrity to strangers, the fakeness of Hollywood, and some great advice that Louis-Dreyfus’s mother passed along to her. “It is so fun to be reminded of how funny you are.” “Likewise.”

Watch the Julia Louis-Dreyfus episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Loved Letterman on TV or hated him, you cannot help but appreciate listening to the guy talk outside of the studio setting. He hadn’t yet grown the Santa beard, but hanging out with an unshaven Letterman in Connecticut, the talk-show icon waxes nostalgically about his beginnings at The Comedy Store, trying to follow Richard Pryor, or the comedians such as Lenny Schultz who didn’t ever hit it so big, and in between, Letterman impersonates Leno for some stories you’d never heard before. “Can we just ask these people to leave?” Letterman asks while they’re in a cafe. You get the feeling that Dave would really let loose if they had.

Watch the David Letterman episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

A bittersweet episode, focusing so much on death just before Shandling himself died, offers so many poignant moments. But of course, since it’s Shandling, it’s meta from the start. They talk a bit about Robin Williams, insert a Jewish kvetch-o-meter while having coffee, stop into The Comedy Store and stand on the stage while swapping stories, and slip onto the CBS lot in Studio City where they filmed Larry Sanders and Seinfeld in neighboring studios. “We used to run this town,” Seinfeld says in an aside. But leave it to Shandling to offer another moment of zen, recalling the time he told a Buddha joke to the Dalai Lama.

Watch the Garry Shandling episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

This started out as a gimmick episode, as Seinfeld booked Cho as a guest to help her offset a horrible TMZ-reported experience at the Stress Factory comedy club in New Jersey. But along the way, we discover that Cho and actor Sam Rockwell used to be a comedy duo in the 1980s, that Seinfeld offered Cho shrewd advice when she was competing in a college comedy contest, and that in 2016, comedy audiences didn’t know how to react to Cho’s routines about rape and sexual assault. It was only a year before #MeToo begat a reckoning. But here, Cho was telling Seinfeld: “If you can actually take the silence away, you can take away predators. They have nowhere to hide. Every time I talk about it, my rapist is super scared.”

Watch the Margaret Cho episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

This is the guest and this is the episode that started it all. Not just with the original launch of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee back in July 2012, but also with Seinfeld itself. David and Seinfeld, walking around New York City or Los Angeles, observing the world and debating its intricacies or customs. Not exactly nothing, no matter what everybody thought. Also funny because David refuses to drink coffee now, preferring tea. What does it matter what’s in the cup? He asks. “It’s the mood,” Seinfeld counters. Is that nothing, or is that something?

Watch the Larry David episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix

Once I tell you that Seinfeld and George Wallace were roommates in New York City as new young stand-up comedians in the 1970s, everything else about this episode becomes much more appealing to you, doesn’t it? Seinfeld reconnects with Wallace in Las Vegas, where Seinfeld was touring with opening act Mario Joyner, and Wallace then had a standing casino/resort gig at The Flamingo. They have so many stories and such deep rapport that it’s almost too easy.

But that’s exactly what we want in this series. Ease and comfort.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch the George Wallace episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee on Netflix