C'mon, don't make Julia Louis-Dreyfus know about "The Rizzler"

"No offense to that nice child. But I had no idea who he was"—Julia Louis-Dreyfus, reminding us all that she is a comedy legend.

By William Hughes | May 3, 2025 | 3:27pm

C'mon, Lewis Pullman, you're not too good for The Rizzler, are you? Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Disney

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C'mon, don't make Julia Louis-Dreyfus know about

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There’s always something mildly pleasant when we get a sense that an actor’s public persona rhymes with their true self; we are, for instance, damn near certain that Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a better person than either Elaine Benes or Selina Meyer—it would be hard to be a worse one. But it’s also very hard not to perceive (and be delighted to see) some of that inner Veep acid bleeding out in the below interview clip, in which Louis-Dreyfus was forced to confront the existence of The Rizzler.

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Louis-Dreyfus was talking with Buzzfeed Canada about her new Marvel movie Thunderbolts*, and specifically about the movie’s premiere, where she posed for photos with online media star Christian “The Rizzler” Joseph. (Who, just so we’re on the same page, is 9, cute, and blameless in all this.) Teed up magnificently by interviewer Isabella Torchia (“Congratulations for meeting The Rizzler last night”), Louis-Dreyfus gives a could-not-have-written-it-better response. “No offense to that nice… child… But I had no idea who he was.” Demonstrating why she has eight comedy acting Emmys, Louis-Dreyfus notes that she was happy to play along with this random child dressed like co-star David Harbour, asking him to show off his Red Guardian moves. “Not knowing he was… The Rizzler.”

Obviously, there is a basic existential indignity to Julia Louis-Dreyfus having to know who The Rizzler is, period. (Thank god she appears to have been kept safe from the contagion of “The Costco Boys.”) But life provides only a limited number of sublime and genuine comedy moments, so we’ll take what we can get.