The 22 reasons why Julia Louis-Dreyfus is reigning first lady of comedy

Two decades after leaving the show, Louis-Dreyfus came back to host "Saturday Night Live" in 2006. She came back to host two more times, including a memorable 2016 appearance in which she interrogated her old friend Larry David (playing Bernie Sanders), in character as Elaine Benes. She's a great sketch comedian, but particularly in the fake commercial for Heroin AM, "the only non-drowsy heroin on the market."

At age 21, some people are getting into bars for the first time. Louis-Dreyfus was admitted into the cast of "Saturday Night Live," where she appeared alongside legends like Eddie Murphy and performers like Jim Belushi and Joe Piscopo. She was mainly used for celebrity impressions, like this uncanny Andie MacDowell impression, which is a great example of JLD's career specialty: taking a high-status, arrogant person, and throwing a pie in their face. 

Although she may have been a little old for her standards, JLD has a small part in Woody Allen's award-winning "Hannah and Her Sisters," as an assistant on his character's TV show. Here's a clip, where Woody's character argues with a censor about a child molestation joke (gulp). JLD holds her own, and her Madonna-inspired multi-scarf look captures the mid-'80s as much as seeing Max Headroom drinking New Coke during an illegal arms deal with Iran.

Louis-Dreyfus' first major sitcom role was on "Day By Day," when she played the main couple's acerbic friend, alongside future '90s legends Thora Birch and Courtney Thorne-Smith. Her character's name was "Eileen," which may have subconsciously helped NBC executives accept her as Elaine on Seinfeld. The show ran for two seasons, but the most lasting legacy comes from  "A Very Brady Episode," where the family's son imagines he's in an episode of "The Brady Bunch." The fantasy features a stellar, exhausted cheerleading routine from JLD and CTS, but the actor who played the son, Christopher Daniel Barnes, would go on to play Greg Brady in "A Very Brady Movie" and its sequel. It's hard to imagine that happening without "Day By Day."

JLD plays Margo Chester, the yuppie neighbor in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," whose life is slowly destroyed by neighbor Clark Griswold. She and her husband Todd are set up as antagonists, but there's a persuasive argument that they're the victims of the film. The Griswolds destroy their window, their stereo, blind them with Christmas lights and run chainsaws in the middle of the night. Poor Margo just wants to drink wine and lie on the couch without a SWAT team breaking in. We are all Margo Chester.

Early on in "Seinfeld," it became clear that Michael Richards wasn't the only physical comedy expert on the show. In "The Pen," Louis-Dreyfus takes a simple situation — there's an uncomfortable sofa bed at Jerry's parent's condo — and turns it into comedy gold. She follows it up by getting delightfully loopy once Elaine decides to take muscle relaxants for the pain. If your ribs weren't hurting from laughter, your back will be aching out of sympathy.

Before Pixar was truly Pixar, Louis-Dreyfus played an ant princess named Atta in "A Bug's Life." Even as a voice actress, she conveys the combination of arrogance and neuroses of insect royalty, legitimately selling the emotion of her apology scene. And how many actresses have 11 Emmys and are part of a Disneyland ride?

In "The Little Kicks" episode of "Seinfeld," Louis-Dreyfus delivers the most epically terrible dancing in sitcom history, a genre that's seen a lot of bad dancing. Look, it takes actual rhythm and agility in order to dance so epically, terribly bad. She’s got the full complement of moves — the spasmodic head jerk, dangerous kicking motions. George Costanza calls it “a full-body dry heave.”

Louis-Dreyfus is a petite woman, but her shoves are the stuff of legend. As "Seinfeld" went on, Elaine's shouts of "Get out!" in disbelief got progressively louder, and her shoves got more and more violent. By the end of the series, she was shoving people through doors and over rails, and while it should have been unsettling, there's something delightful about seeing JLD knock over much larger men.

Some scenes from "Seinfeld" have the cadence of a David Mamet play, with dialogue going back and forth while one character repeats the same phrase. It requires an actor to have impeccable timing and imbue the same words with different meanings as the scene goes on. JLD's rhythm is perfect for this, as she demonstrates in a scene during which she reports on a bad date with Jerry's friend, who "took it out."

The Emmys love Louis-Dreyfus, starting with her first nod for Best Supporting Actress in 1996, after four nominations (and four American Comedy Awards). Once the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences finally noticed her, they never forgot her, giving her 10 more statues over the years, which is more than any performer (besides Cloris Leachman). Plus she got two for being the producer of "Veep." In your face, Leachman!

Meryl Streep may get more credit for her voice work, but tell me Louis-Dreyfus didn't nail the Australian accent when she busted out "Maybe a dingo ate your baby" on "Seinfeld." Someone should give her an award already!

Louis-Dreyfus plays a seemingly blind lawyer, Maggie Lizer, on "Arrested Development." The performance contains seemingly terrible blind jokes that turn into actually terrible blind jokes once she's revealed to be a faker at the episode's closing scene. Her compulsive lying leads to constant reversals of plot and characterization, where you end up feeling for Maggie, even as she does terrible, terrible things.

After the end of "Seinfeld," former cast members famously struggled with their next projects. "The Michael Richards Show" only lasted for nine episodes, Jason Alexander's "Bob Patterson" was cancelled after five and even JLD's own "Watching Ellie" only ran two partial seasons. But with "The New Adventures of Old Christine," Louis-Dreyfus had a bona fide hit, a show that ran for five seasons and won JLD her first Best Actress Emmy. At her acceptance speech, she said, "I'm not somebody who really believes in curses, but curse this, baby!" 

And she can even make herself cry, like in the Season 4 finale of "Veep," where the stress of Election Night and a tied vote bring Selina Meyer to the brink. It's an amazing mix of emotions, as tears turn to frustration that turns to blind rage as she shoves a consultant out of the way, in a pure Elaine Benes "Get Out"-style explosion.

Louis-Dreyfus' specialty is high-status, elite women who keep up appearances for the most part. So when Selina Meyer's mother dies in "Veep," years of sadness and frustration explode as she trashes the old family barn. It's probably due do how tightly she normally keeps control that watching her go off is so, so satisfying.

The seventh season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" featured a fake "Seinfeld" reunion, so Louis-Dreyfus and her castmates all played exaggerated versions of themselves. In "Seinfeld"-esque fashion, a huge plot point involved a dispute over a damp glass that left a ring on a wooden coffee table. In an even more "Seinfeld" fashion, the coffee table incident ruins Larry's season-long attempt to reunite with his ex-wife.

Give Louis-Dreyfus the slightest of motivations for a physical quirk or ailment, and she'll nail it. Like in the "Debate" episode of "Veep," where an uncontrollable eye twitch threatens to derail Selina Meyer's presidential campaign before it begins. It falls just short of being over the top, and shows a tremendous amount of eyelid control.

Our JLD is an all-around performer, with a capable voice, as seen when she performs a song on "Veep." She gets in trouble for the content of "50 Ways to Win in Denver," but everyone loves her chops, even beat-boxing war hero Danny Chung. Let's just hope Selina Meyer doesn't dance like Elaine Benes.

She's a loyal sports fan, despite the teams' lack of success, which explains why she's seen in the stands for the L.A. Clippers and also Northwestern (where her son Charlie plays basketball). Anyone can root for the Lakers — they win all the time! JLD shows she's a true fan and team player, which is probably why Elaine Benes supported the hapless Baltimore Orioles. And she'll wear that cap wherever she wants, dammit!

Louis-Dreyfus played a serious romantic lead opposite the legendary James Gandolfini in the great Nicole Holofcener's "Enough Said." She's a divorced single mother who works as a masseuse, who begins dating Gandolfini while simultaneously becoming close friends with his ex-wife. It's more serious than most of JLD's work, but it's an affecting, vulnerable performance. Critics loved it, with the film achieving a 95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and it hints at a post-"Veep" dramatic career for Louis-Dreyfus.

Louis-Dreyfus has talent that transcends fake politics and goes into the world of fake politics as well. Like when she spoofed "Veep" with actual Vice President Joe Biden for the White House Correspondents Dinner. Look, the VP does fine, but the highlight comes when JLD and Michelle Obama pig out on ice cream in the White House kitchen, with Obama claiming that raisins in ice cream make it qualify as a fruit.