Manti Te'o Pokes Fun At Girlfriend Hoax Story During New NFL Network Gig

Manti Te'o appears to be slowly but surely getting over the girlfriend hoax story that rocked his life ... 'cause he just poked fun at the situation during one of his first appearances at his new NFL Network job -- and it was hilarious!!

Te'o -- who officially joined the NFL Network this week -- made the funny while appearing on Friday's edition of "Good Morning Football."

One of the segments on the show required him to answer some trivia questions about his alma mater -- the University of Notre Dame -- and when he began to struggle to come up with correct responses, he dropped a zinger about not Googling himself that had the whole room laughing.

If you somehow forgot ... back in 2013, it was revealed Te'o got duped into a relationship with who he thought was a woman named "Lennay Kekua."

Kekua, of course, turned out to be a Te'o family acquaintance -- Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, and when it all got revealed to the public, the former linebacker called it "painful and humiliating."

While it's easy to imagine the subject is still a sore spot for the eight-year NFL vet ... he's clearly able to have some fun with it now -- as he laughed it up with his co-hosts Akbar Gbaja-Biamila, Kyle Brandt and Jamie Erdahl.