Neil Patrick Harris popped up on Entertainment Tonight talking about the upcoming Britney Spears guest-spot on his sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Watch closely for a crash course in how to diplomatically answer questions about someone whose reputation is clearly in the toilet without sounding mean. Aside from his referring to Brit as "... Madam? Spears?" this has to be my favorite line: "It'll be very unlike any Britney we've seen before ... and we've seen a lot of Britneys recently!"

He also muses on whether the whole batsh*t-crazy-Cheeto-fueled-head-shaving thing might just be an act. Oh, the kids these days with their optimism!

(I couldn't figure out how to stop the clip from playing on its own, so I moved it to after the jump. Check it out!)