Idolator

This is what happens when you cancel "Daria".

This certainly is plausible; more plausible, I think than the "cornered bully at the end of a teen flick" spew of aimless insults observation I made last night.

But if it's true -- if the whole mess -- not just Britney's bomb and the terrible "suite" performances and the scary pairing of HerNameIsNicole and Zombie Norris and the Ronson Saturation Factor (Dude, I love me some Versions, but by the end of the night even I WAS SICK OF IT) and the shitty Saturday morning pro wrestling anticlimactic schtick of Kanye vs 50 Cent -- but all of it! -- was actually INTENDED? (Even the brawl bet. Kid Rock and Tommy Lee????!!!) Well. The VMAs may be the most amazingly brilliant piece of performance art created in the past 10 years.

Seriously.

It's entirely possible that MTV was banking on trainwreck, but if so, this tactic may very well have backfired on them. Britney's anti-enthusiasm cast such a pall on the first half-hour of the proceedings (my God, the audience silence!) that I won't be surprised if the show experienced a huge audience tune-out early on, the whole world assuming the whole thing was just going to be one bore after another.

Oh absolutely. No one could have thought she'd do well. I feel kind of bad for her now.

But the awards in all... You know it's messed up when Rihanna is the best live performer, as that girl can't usually carry a tune live.

@heidiho: Who cares about the tune - just let her carry an umber-rella around for 3 minutes, and you have the highlight of the show right there. ;) Also, you know it's messed up when Rihanna is openly laughing in front of you at your skills as a live performer.

@dickdogfood: I can definitely see that - dead-eyed Britney and Silverman's Heather/mean girl shtick made me feel icky for the rest of the show, and nothing (save perhaps an uncut version of that performance by Cee-Lo with the Foos) would have made things better. If your goal is to create buzz, broadcasting someone's career suicide might not be the best way to do it...

Funny you should suggest this, since I began putting this theory together in my head this morning. If the VMAs were conventionally "good," would we be talking about them? Probably not.

apart from what the MTV people intended the VMAs to be, i think maura's on to something w/her theory that MTV brought the internet (as a sort of post-postmodern bricolage) to TV....at the level of intent, they seemed to be trying really hard to do the reverse, to bring TV to the internet (second life, twitter, etc). perhaps we should think of brit-brit's performance as a sort of expensive amateur youtube video mashup of britney spears "gimme more"?

@mike a: Agreed.

I think most people knew it was a 50-50 gamble Britney was either going to actually try to entertain and show everyone up or just be consistent with the insane shit-show the tabloids have been reporting for months.

Either way, as far as her career goes, MTV giveth and MTV taketh away.

I hope for her own personal and mental safety she just goes away now for a long time and focuses on raising her kids... but I don't see that happening.

@mike a: Oh crap. I'm so dense sometimes -- we've totally played into their evil hands by continuing to beat this dead horse and dance gleefully about its corpse with streaming banners, screaming bitchy, pithy one-liners.

In other words: OMG, you guys -- MTV totally just broke the internet. People are blogging about how much they HATED something.

That may explain Britney's debacle, but it doesn't explain casting Sarah Silverman as the host. Think of it for a minute: isn't any sort of show host meant to draw people in to the show's proceedings, and make it a fun (and funny) environment? And then you have Sarah Silverman -- whose entire comedy routine hinges on being unnerving, callously racist and sexist to the point of being ridiculous, and generally shocking. How was it ever appropriate to make the inviting "host" construct painted over in the completely off-putting Sarah Silverman mold?

Thank God they steered away from a host-driven show format.

Uh, present company excluded of course. We all know Idolator is the only safe haven for music lovers who hate everything. <3

@Thierry: Well, she is mighty purdy.

This is the Foos/Cee-Lo if it works:
[www.mtv.com]

@heidiho: Unfortunately, those links are not available outside the U.S.

@J.T.: She wasn't the host. She only did the opening monologue, perhaps as a wink-and-nod to the MTV Movie Awards and her making fun of Paris--only she was there to make fun of Britney.

I thought the stench of conspiracy was stronger that year when Brit gave a birthday cake/present to Michael Jackson, and he thought it was some Artist of the Millennium award. I totally suspect those assholes at MTV of telling MJ he would be receiving some great award, and then pulling the rug out under his feet to generate "buzz." Not that MJ is a saint or anything, but still.