I used to watch award shows when a lot of the hype was about which artist won and who performed the best. Some of the most buzz-worthy parts of the show would include an artist doing something pretty impressive. This year's MTV Video Music Awards were a little different. I'm not sure if I saw anything impressive, but I did have at least five moments where I was thinking "WTF?" (To be honest there were a few of these, but, like the Kardashian bunch, some were more relevant than others.) In case you missed the show, I took the liberty of listing them.
1)Kanye West
He makes the list for proving to the world that I have telepathy. During his speech we made eye contact. In that moment, I simply thought "this man is high." Not even a second later he responded to me. He actually said "some of you are wondering if I'm high. Yes, I smoked in the car." As he continued to talk, I started to feel like I was high, too. I was confused by the direction of the speech. I wasn't sure if he was apologizing to Taylor Swift, or reiterating what he stated years ago. He explained his passion for advocating for artists that he feels get overlooked by award shows. He also explained how he felt when he saw Justin Timberlake cry when he didn't get to take home that coveted award. (Sidebar: I'm going to give Justin a pass for shedding thug tears when he lost. Thanks Ye for pointing that out to us.) Now, back to Kanye. I just love how he mentioned that MTV will damn near do anything for ratings during a speech that he ended by announcing his future presidential run. But as long as I'm giving out passes, Kanye can get one, too, for bringing up a great point about not understanding award shows -- especially their selection process, given that so many great artists get overlooked.
2)Rebel Wilson
I have to put this on this list because Twitter's 140 character restrictions just wouldn't let me be great. For a split second I thought Rebel Wilson was going to say something meaningful. While I didn't find it meaningful, it certainly was telling. She simply doesn't care that the black community in the United States is the primary recipient of police brutality. When she approached the microphone, she referenced the fact that many people are outraged about the police. (I'm paraphrasing because at one point I went into full WTF mode as she was speaking.) She later took off a portion of her costume (a police uniform) and started to joke about how she understands that feeling because she shares a similar outrage for police strippergrams. I don't know if she wrote the joke, but she certainly delivered it. At the very least it was beyond insensitive. I'm a black, formally educated, law-abiding woman, and when I get pulled over by police, my heart races. I get terrified because, unfortunately, a routine stop for a person of colour in the USA could end fatally. If you think I'm exaggerating, you should spend some time with my good friend Google. If you don't understand my fear, spend some time with me and we can talk. I said all of this to say that given the gravity of the problem, it should not be trivialized by a one-minute joke. So, yea, Rebel: WTF?
3)Miley Cyrus
[Insert deep sigh] Not sure where to begin. For one, she called Snoop Dogg her "Mammy." Second, she was just very Miley "Will do anything for attention" Cyrus. And, yup, I'm just going to ignore the fact that she said Donald Trump had her vote. I'm just going to pretend that was a joke. It will help me sleep better.
4)Nicki Minaj
Oh, Nikki baby. Apparently, she's pissed about some public comments Miley made about her. After she thanked her pastor for the Anaconda video, she went off on Miley. I'm just going to let that sink in. Her response was a lot scarier than the diss track Meek Mill wrote about Drake. So, not only is Meek not the best rapper in their relationship, he isn't even the best at returning a diss.
Even though I just finished watching the show, I can't tell you many of the actual award winners. They were overshadowed by these WTF moments. I will state something that I haven't even considered since the birth of Kanye-Kardashian: Kanye made a great point. I don't understand award shows anymore. The goal seems to be less about honouring an artist and more about finding ways to create a buzz for the show. If I'm right, then MTV did a great job. So, the award for Most WTF Moments That Will Possibly Consume the Internet goes to MTV.
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