Sometimes, two seemingly mismatched things from disparate backgrounds and decades can come together in unlikely harmony. Just tap Catherine Zeta-Jones on the shoulder the next time you spot her sucking face with Michael Douglas and ask her. Or, alternately, you can watch the video above:

In it, newest addition to the How I Met Your Mother family Britney Spears reprises her role as a doctor's receptionist who, in a recurring gag we're certain seemed funny in the writers' room, cries whenever she's yelled at on the phone. Throw in a lightbulb moment and some skillful editing courtesy of Defamer videographer Molly McAleer, and Britney is now berated by Ferris Bueller's Day Off's Cameron, one of John "Frannie and Zooey" Hughes's most memorable comic creations (with props, of course, to Alan Ruck). Asked for any insights into her latest work, McAleer simply shrugged, and, in her cavalier, Claire From Six Feet Under - the Art School Years way, simply said, "I just thought it would be hilarlar to have Cameron yelling at her," pausing for a moment before adding, "I thought it also demonstrated that when put up against people with actual comedic chops she's really really terrible, as opposed to kind of decent next to a bunch of hacks."

• Previously: Two Minutes To Save Britney's Career [Defamer]
• How I Met Your Mother [CBS]

Tags: britney spears | cbs | clips | how i met your mother | john hughes