Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Laughter was 'best medicine' for cancer

Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Julia Louis-Dreyfus says laughter proved the "best medicine" during her battle with breast cancer.

The 57-year-old actress reflected on her experience with the disease while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor during a ceremony Sunday at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., according to CBS This Morning.

"Cancer isn't at all funny but a big part of dealing with it has been finding the funny moments," Louis-Dreyfus said before poking fun at President Donald Trump.

"The old cliche about laughter being the best medicine turns out to be true, which is good because that's what the current administration is trying to replace Obamacare with," she quipped.

Tina Fey, Jerry Seinfeld and Stephen Colbert and other stars gathered to honor Louis-Dreyfus, who has starred in such TV series as Seinfeld and Veep. Fey praised the actress' comedic timing during her speech.

"It's her ability to appear completely effortless and natural on the surface while being a stone cold machine of timing underneath it," Fey said, according to NPR. "Julia is a Terminator robot of comedy."

Louis-Dreyfus called the prize an "awesome" honor in an interview on the red carpet.

"It's incredibly awesome. It's very humbling. And I cannot believe it's happening," she said, according to the Kennedy Center official Twitter.

Louis-Dreyfus returned to the Veep set in August after being diagnosed with cancer in September 2017. She completed chemotherapy in January and underwent surgery the next month.