  The uniform electron gas is a key model system in the description of matter,
including dense plasmas and solid state systems. However, the simultaneous
occurence of quantum, correlation, and thermal effects makes the theoretical
description challenging. For these reasons, over the last half century many
analytical approaches have been developed the accuracy of which has remained
unclear. We have recently obtained the first \textit{ab initio} data for the
exchange correlation free energy of the uniform electron gas [T. Dornheim
\textit{et al.}, Phys.~Rev.~Lett.~\textbf{117}, 156403 (2016)] which now
provides the opportunity to assess the quality of the mentioned approaches and
parametrizations. Particular emphasis is put on the warm dense matter regime,
where we find significant discrepancies between the different approaches.
