Something here hits the right note between slapstick and plausibility. Iannucci and his co-writers have landed on a brilliantly fresh knack for Washington mockery as “Veep” sends all those starry-eyed 1990s Beltway fables — Sorkin’s “The American President” or stuff like “Dave” or even that old Goldie Hawn comedy “Protocol” — into the paper shredder. Those comedies shared an optimistic regard for the federal soul, but that sort of thing no longer exists. In stark contrast, Selina’s self-absorbed missteps and maladroit scheming depict a Washington of irredeemable dysfunction. (The show’s closest kin, D.C.-wise, might be the 1999 Watergate parody, “Dick.”) You don’t get the feeling that Selina is the type of TV politico who will ask her motorcade to stop off at the National Archives so she can gaze lovingly upon the Constitution.

It’s as if certain aspects of Sarah Palin, a tiny bit of Joe Biden and a lot of “The Comeback’s” Valerie Cherish have been grafted onto Selina’s neuroses — a go-getter whose desperate bids for attention and positive limelight lead her to fixate on everything but the gravitas of her position. The joke here is that there is precious little in her job description besides breaking ties in the Senate and taking the oath of office if the president croaks. “What have I been missing?” Selina asks Sen. Barbara Hallowes (Kate Burton), a rival from her earlier days in Congress.

Mostly we’re left to ponder: What is she? What created her? She ran unsuccessfully for president, a flash in the primary pan, and accepted the front-runner’s invitation to join his ticket as VP — begrudgingly, it turns out. She is divorced, which is another part of her story that I hope gets fleshed out in future episodes. She has a daughter in college, whose disdain for her mother’s ambition is apparent with every shrug and frown for the cameras.

Instead, Selina’s true family is her woefully inept yet loyal staff, played by a terrific ensemble cast. Gary is only ever a step behind with an array of sanitary hand gels and a stepping stool to help Selina see over lecterns. He mutters arcane, Mike Allen-esque trivial details to her about the important and non-important people approaching from all sides. Impressed by the sharky qualities of Hallowes’s communications director, Dan Egan (Reid Scott), Selina hires him to add teeth to her political agenda — much to the dismay of Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh), her own communications director, a perspiring Reagan-era Hill rat who grazes cocktail buffets and maintains plausible deniability on any potential crisis.

“Veep” knows its stuff well enough to equip Selina’s staff with BlackBerrys instead of iPhones, because Washington is the last bastion of the dreaded device. Everyone in “Veep” harbors a serious BlackBerry addiction, another detail that sets them apart from the Washington caricatures of political movies and TV shows of yore. I faintly recall, as a reporter, when everyone in Washington started looking down instead of up. Once they fell under the BlackBerry spell, the world ceased to exist as shapes and faces and nuance. Reporters stopped noticing things around them unless it came across as fresh text in the palm of their hand. The town changed. A collective mind-set emerged, but instead of clarity it offered 24-7 derangement and instant scandal. That’s when the circus tent fell and the real chaos began. That’s the world “Veep” so intelligently lampoons.

Veep

(30 minutes) premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. on HBO.