My impression of the 2008 VMA’s
Since I’ve been blogging about the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards for weeks, I thought I would give you my impressions of the show. The host, British comedian Russell Brand (the new boyfriend in this year’s Forgetting Sarah Marshall), wasn’t very funny in my opinion. He starts off with stumping for Barack Obama and bagging on Bush. I’m not on anyone’s side politically, but I don’t know why a comedian who can’t even vote in this country has any say at all. He then goes on to make fun of tween dreamboat rock act The Jonas Brothers mercilessly. He joked about their purity rings, which they each wear vowing not to have sex before marriage. I could maybe understand him poking fun of them once…but those poor boys were picked on for most of the show! After fellow purity ring wearer Jordin Sparks responded that “not every guy and girl wants to be a slut, OK?,” Brand sort of apologized, but he made one last jab by saying, “Promise rings, I’m well up for it. [But] a bit of sex, it never hurt anybody.” I’m no prude or all that religious, but if the Brothers Jonas made a decision to abstain, it shouldn’t be ridiculed so heavily. This is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, so I wouldn’t deny Brand his right to free speech, but I think that he could have spread the snark around a little to other celebrities instead of ganging up on the J-Bros.
I thought the performances weren’t bad. I liked Christina Aguilera doing an updated version of her first hit “Genie in a Bottle.” Kid Rock performing with Lil Wayne on “All Summer Long” wasn’t bad. Pink’s psycho performance of “So What” was very cool. I was a little ticked that some of the performances that I was looking forward to seeing…like Katy Perry singing “Like a Virgin”/”I Kissed a Girl”…were aired before and/or after the commercial breaks instead of showing the whole performance. If they had so many acts to show, couldn’t they put them in the pre-show or post-show instead of doing it the way they did? The pre-show consisted of a dance off between two losing teams from “America’s Best Dance Crew,” which was okay…but I would have preferred the singing performances in whole.
What about the subject of last year’s controversy…Britney Spears? She opened the show with a pre-taped skit with Superbad’s Jonas Hill attempting to try to trick her into kissing him, and then she walked out on the stage to introduce the show. I’m a little surprised that she didn’t make fun of herself by referencing last year’s VMA’s. I’ve seen her host NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” so I know that she has a sense of humor. Either way, the pop star…who has never won a Moon Man ever…walked away with three awards. way to go, Brit-Brit!
What did you think of the VMA’s? Did you find Brand funny? Did you think that he was a little to harsh to The Jonas Brothers? Were you happy that Britney has made a comeback, or disappointed that we didn’t get to see her do something tabloid-worthy? What was your favorite performance?
Here’s the complete list of winners for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards:
- Video of the Year: Britney Spears, “Piece of Me”
- Female Video: Britney Spears, “Piece of Me”
- Male Video: Chris Brown, “With You”
- Rock Video: Linkin Park, “Shadow of the Day”
- Hip-Hop Video: Lil Wayne, “Lollipop”
- Pop Video: Britney Spears, “Piece of Me”
- Dancing in a Video: Pussycat Dolls, “When I Grow Up”
- New Artist: Tokio Hotel, “Ready, Set, Go!”
Here is the opening monologue by Russell Brand. Judge for yourself how funny it was: