Russell Brand seems like a jolly, nice guy, but that doesn’t mean that he tolerates people being rude to him. The English funnyman schooled U.S. TV journalists on how to properly do their job after they treated him like an “extraterrestrial.”

Brand was a guest at the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” on Monday to promote his upcoming comedy tour “The Messiah Complex.” But things didn’t go as smoothly as should be, but surprisingly, it’s not because of Brand, who is known for being rowdy at times.

Even before the interview started, co-host Mika Brzezinski didn’t make their guest exactly welcome.

“Joining us now is a really big deal. I know I’m told this. I’m not very pop cultured, I’m sorry,” she started, as if to say that Brand’s popularity didn’t matter to serious journalism.

Her introduction set an uncomfortable atmosphere in the room, which was exacerbated by Brzezinski and panellists Katty Kay and Brian Schactman’s condescending attitude in the guise of wonderment towards their guest throughout the interview.

The trio often talked about the comedian in the third person while he was sitting just a metre across them. There were moments when it seemed that were completely ignoring him while they traded jokes at his expense.

“You know, it’s funny, the accent, when I see him in person, it’s totally fine,” Shactman, an American, said, “’Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ or the TV show, it’s fine, but on satellite radio in the car, I can’t understand a single joke you say.”

“Can you understand me?” Kay, an Englishwoman, asked.

“Yes, but when I’m driving the car and everyone’s laughing in the radio and I have no idea what you say.”

When the camera panned to Brzezinski, she appeared to be studying Brand from afar, saying, “I think I’m just... this is my first Brand experience. I think it’s not listening to him, it’s sort of taking it all in.”

“You know you’re talking as if I’m not here and as if I’m an extra-terrestrial,” Brand interjected.

“You’re like a shop window dummy. We’re just admiring the whole thing,” Kay reasoned out, to which Brand replied, “Thank you for your casual objectification.”

“You shouldn’t say ‘he’ when a person is present. You should refer to the person by his name,” a clearly annoyed Brand said. “That’s basic good manners.”

At one point, they even called him by a wrong name.

“Who is Willie?” the exasperated comedian asked. “Is this what you all do for a living?”

He then took over and promoted his show on camera and talked about hosts’ topics for that day, including Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning.

But when the hosts, who were all looking clearly nervous, still referred to him in the third person, Brand started his tirade.

“Stop saying ‘he,’ I’m present! What’s wrong with your manners?” he cried.

“Look beyond the superficial, that’s the problem with current affairs. You forget about what’s important, you allow the agenda to be decided by superficial information – what am I saying? What am I talking about? Don’t think what I’m wearing, these things are redundant, superficial. Don’t be distracted,” he told Shactman when he started talking about what he would wear the next day, referring to Brand’s outfit.

The trio seemed rattled with the development in their interview, which they concealed with laughter.

Of course, Brand being Brand, he couldn’t help inserting a few of his signature jokes, telling the clearly nervous Brzezinksy that she’s a “shaft grasper.”

Watch the awkward interview here;