He's makes a lot of fun of himself.
But I happen to see him the first night he was the anchor on the 8 P.M. news on MSNBC (I think I even watched it BECAUSE I had seen him on Letterman) and it was the night that TWA 800 crashed; MSNBC was so new, they didn't even have any graphics.
During a break, he went out to his car and got a map and held it up to show where the plane went down.
IMO, it was very impressive.
Self-deprecating humor is probably the funniest.
I honestly will say that I watched Brian Williams' show on MSNBC nightly, and stopped watching when he left and The News With Brian Williams was done away with. So I do recall that moment you're talking about quite vividly. :)