Funny

HBO viewers may have noticed a familiar set on the comedy series “Veep” last night. Vice President Selina Meyer (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) needed to get some good press, so she was booked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to drum up support for immigration reform. Things go horribly awry, but you can watch the show for that.

Instead, you may note that yes, the show was taped on the actual “Meet the Press” set, though moderator David Gregory wasn’t there. He was “sick,” so there is a fake moderator instead.

Related: Frank Rich talks to mediabistroTV about his role in making “Veep”

“America’s Got Talent” premieres tomorrow night on NBC, and Howard Stern stopped by the “Today” show to promote the show this week. Among other things, Stern talked to Matt Lauer about the criticism leveled at “America’s Got Talent” after Stern was announced as the newest judge.

“What a crazy idea to put me on a family show. Somebody at NBC should be fired for that, right?” Stern joked. “I watched the show, I’m a fan of the show. I’m not going on the show to disrupt the beauty of ‘America’s Got Talent.’ Because I love the show.”

At the end of the interview, Stern brought up the ratings battle between “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” prompting Lauer to jokingly say they were out of time. And that’s when things got a little strange:

On last night’s “Conan,” host Conan O’Brien poked fun at MSNBC’s recent misplaced chyron, which said “Prostitute Speaks” as former French President Nicholas Sarkozy appeared on screen.

Apparently unfortunate chyrons are a fairly common occurrence.

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In addition, CNN’s Piers Morgan was on the sister network, where he talked to Conan about stealing toilet paper from The Queen, yes seriously.

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On NBC’s “Today” this morning, Matt Lauer interviewed “General Aladeen,” the fictional dictator of the fictional country of Wadiya. Aladeen is actually actor Sacha Baron Cohen, and he was on the show to promote his upcoming movie, “The Dictator.”

Cohen had plenty of fun at Lauer’s expense, including a joke about Ann Curry:

“The billibino girl? what is her name?” Cohen said “You mean Japanese-American, Ann Curry,” Lauer replied. “I know that you are having an affair with her, so ask me good questions and I will not bring it up when we are on the air,” Cohen quipped.

He also brought up Ryan Seacrest:

“I know that Ryan had attempted a coup and take your job, well done for having him executed!”

The cold open to last night’s “Saturday Night Live” took aim at Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” and hosts Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade and Gretchen Carlson.

Their targets included President Obama, hologram Tupac, and more President Obama. They were also joined by “Rupert Murdoch.”

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This was a very odd television segment. Comedian Aziz Ansari was on Anderson Cooper‘s daytime show “Anderson,” and decided to bring along an Anderson lookalike. Cooper was impressed, although the resemblance still left something to be desired, particularly in the “height” department.

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The “Anderson” lookalike came after Ansari played a prank on Cooper, sending out a lookalike of his own to start the interview. It took Cooper a minute to realize he wasn’t speaking to the real thing.

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ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel appeared on CNN’s “AC360″ to talk about the jokes he made–and didn’t make–at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Kimmel revealed a few jokes that were too racy for the room and also talked to Anderson Cooper about the CNN joke he made:

“You look great always, you are indeed the silver fox, but the HD is not helping the folks there at CNN, I think it is time to just go back to “D,” Kimmel quipped to Cooper.

Kimmel also talked about his Keith Olbermann joke, and the response he received on Twitter from the former MSNBC and Current TV host. Even Cooper got in the game. “He responded on Twitter, which I think is the only media form he still has access to,” Cooper quipped.

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ABC News anchor and “The View” host Barbara Walters did not like her colleague Jimmy Kimmel‘s joke about her at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

“16 years ago there was no Facebook, there was no Google and a tweet was something Barbara Walters gave her dog,” Kimmel quipped at the dinner, with the camera panning to Walters, who was smiling, but not laughing.

Walters discussed the joke on “The View” this morning.

“If you look at me, I was laughing too. But I did not like Jimmy Kimmel — who was very funny — but I did not like what he said about me.”

“It was a well-crafted joke!,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said, noting that when she is mocked on “Saturday Night Live,” she is portrayed by a man.

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NBC comedy “30 Rock” had its annual live episode Thursday night, and as was the case last year the cast performed two different versions for the east and west coast audiences. This year, one of the scenes was a recreation of the “Huntley-Brinkley Report,” NBC’s flagship evening news program from 1956-1971.

Alec Baldwin played Chet Huntley, but David Brinkley looked decidedly different in both telecasts. See if you can spot the differences. One thing both telecasts had: sexism and cigarettes (though one of the Brinkley’s didn’t want to be seen holding one).

On the west coast, Huntley bore a striking resemblance to NBC News anchor Brian Williams:

On the east coast, he seemed hunky in a” Mad Men-esque” sort of way:
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Gawker’s “Fox News Mole” Joe Muto has posted another dispatch, this time an anecdote about a visit to “The O’Reilly factor” from 80′s sitcom star–and puppet–ALF.

The story itself is actually pretty funny, particularly the anecdote about Dick Morris at the end, but if it was meant to be embarrassing to Fox News or Bill O’Reilly, it didn’t really hit the mark.

Why? Because TV news has a long and illustrious history of having fictional characters on as guests while pretending they are actually real.

Below is a curated selection of some of our favorite moments.

Kermit the Frog on CNN’s “The Situation Room” arguing for inter-species relationships:

Kermit’s other half Miss Piggy on NBC’s “Today” talking about her “career”:

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