Transcript of PODCAST: The MTV VMAs weren't even on MTV this year

Hi, I'm Todd Nathansson. And I'm Lena Morgan. This is a song versus song bonus episode. Every year, for some reason, we watch the MTV Video Music Awards, but I'm not sure we did that this year. I don't What did you described it as something else? No. Someone on on Blue Sky called the MTV Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. painful. Uh, we have since we've been doing this for so long and we don't remember why we're doing it, we decided to invite a third person with us. Say hi. How the [ __ ] did I end up back here again? What the [ __ ] am I doing here? We needed a young to give us perspective on I like the way Yeah, we brought on Emily cuz Emily, you really you're like tuned in to the MTV culture. I'm really hip with the youth right now. I'm I'm constantly going over what is and what is not hot with uh Jen. Is that Gen Alpha? What are we What are we on? Yeah. Yes. You're going what what is theirh hotternot.com? I don't know. It's they they don't have any of the things we had. They just have Tik Tok. Well, the good news is we don't have to worry about that because there was absolutely nothing new at the VMAs this year. Everything was from the 90s. It was great. It was oh a true nightmare. I right before we started I was talking to Todd about how we had done the Grammys and you know if you've listened to that video and why wouldn't you? Um we talked about how it was like the best Grammys we'd ever covered and I thought this is so nice. We've ushered into a new age and 2025 has not been the best year for music. But, you know, that didn't necessarily mean anything. But, uh, no, this is our punishment for having a really good Grammys. This the worst VMAs that we have ever covered, I think. Oh, I we we've said um we've said this is the worst one yet many times, and we've never been wrong. It's so painful. That's so sad. Oh, we ever we are reaching new lows today. Uh, this was not even really the MTV Video Music Awards anymore. I watched it on CBS. Yes, I was going to say I do think that that's a big part of what happened here because last year, for people who don't know, they had I think it was like four or five times the usual audience share. It was like that was like the the biggest audience they've had for the VMAs in like four or five years. And so I guess I mean I assume this is a big part of it. They decided they were going to put the VMAs on CBS instead of just MTV. Now I think there might have been other reasons for this too, but I think by putting it on that network specifically, all of a sudden it's less about V like VMAs and MTV and it's really more about JAG NCIS. Do you know what I mean? Like and here's the thing. It's very depressing to realize that I am officially like I've just entered that age range where like that's they're appealing to me. Like I turned like I was looking at and there were like ads with actors. I was like I know that actor but now they're on a cop show CBS. Uh I think yeah they got Rob Low on there now I think or who knows. But uh welcome Senua Martin Green from Star Trek Discovery. There's my Star Trek reference for the episode. And um with with Donnie Wahberg, that was the one I saw and I was like, "This hurts my soul." Oh, they have Deadpool's wife on a comp show now, whatever that actress's name is. Maria from from uh from Firefly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh I saw completely different commercials because I was watching this on Global TV, which is Canadian CBS. I guess it's exciting. I don't know what it was. certainly the least MTV it it's ever been. And that's uh I didn't would not normally say that as a bad thing, but this was incredibly bad thing. It was very uh incompetent. Well, yeah. I mean, so there's a lot of layers to it, right? I think that the first sign that I was like, "Oh, we might be in trouble." was, you know, the host is LL CoolJ. He comes out and basically says, "Leave your politics at the door." And I was like, uhoh. You know, I'm like, I don't think we have to talk about it too much. But like that did not bode well because it's the MTV VMAs, the Video Music Awards, and like isn't the whole point of those, or at least it used to be that it were they're outrageous. You never know what's going to happen. Things are unexpected. People were going to do things that are outlandish. They're going to make statements. And now they're being told like, "Be good little boys and girls. It's the VMAs." Let's see. Yeah. I I I mean I tuned out LL Cool J because you know he I've seen him host the Grammys a bunch of times. It's always the same. He's all like, "Yo, yo, we're giving it up for music tonight." So I I missed that. But we do know that it is on CBS, which is, you know, in the middle of things right now, right? you know, they went they went through a merger and a big part of getting that merger put through was that they, you know, basically like accepted a lawsuit for doing nothing wrong. I again, like I'm trying to like keep this as basic as possible, but the point is that they have sort of put themselves in a position where if you looked at LL CoolJ saying that in another year, you might be like a little annoyed but not think much of it. But in this particular year with CBS having done what they've done, it does look a little suspicious, right? Well, I mean, like I I don't like try I I do try to leave my politics at the door most of the time, but if it feels like we would be really remiss if we did not talk about the fact that they fired Colbear for criticizing the merger, they've been, you know, bowing down to them in 60 Minutes and Meet the Press and uh to uh Donald Trump and all that. So like it does feel more pointed than unusual. Well, sure. I don't think you have to have any particular kind of politics to think that that's not good, right? Like that's in ideal. Yeah. So, who knows if that had much effect on the show. It seemed to me that it did, but we'll sort of get into that as we talk about it. Yeah. I'll I'll just say my takeaway with LL CoolJ was that of the two VMAs I've watched so far, by the way, I'm Lady Emily. I didn't introduce myself. Oh, right. Did we start of this? I didn't introduce myself. Okay. It's it's the the the post award show vlogs are never are never professional. We're always tired. We're always burnt out. Like it's it's close to midnight over on the East Coast. it. No, my brain I just completely forgot things for professionalism. No, I like of the two VMAs I've watched last year we had Megan the Salina as host and it's like okay here's this hot new artist you know she's she's popular she's trendy she just had this like big year and then it's like who are we getting this year for a big CBS debut and it's like ll cool J. Yeah. The star of Halloween H2O. That's right. He was in that. This was a This was a Halloween reunion night. It was because it was him and then also Buster Rams who was in Resurrection. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. Where is Michael Myers? What award did he win on the night? I don't know. Like he's a LL CoolJ is still on a C on a CSI show, right? Or an NCIS. That's why they got him. Maybe. I I mean I just assume at one and all times either he and or Ice Tea are playing a police officer of some type of some repute. Yeah. So that's he did his a very apolitical thing and then all we started off with a bunch of old artists. Well, we started with DOAT but with Kenny G. I think that's a and then this very like late 80s early 90s set going on like it looked like a mixture of like a Cars video meets like the the Max Diner at Say by the Bell. Yeah, it was like introduced with Max Headroom is like interrupting L CoolJ which was already weird and then she's like basically just straight up in the Cardi B invasion of privacy album art. That's uh that's Max that's Max Hedrew. Yeah, I I forgot she was not even the first female rapper in the last 10 years to do Max Headroom. I completely forgot about that. Yeah, it's it's wild and just does this song that I honestly cannot remember. It's new. It's called Jealous Type. Um I think I thought the performance of it was pretty well done pretty well. I mean like it's a throwback song. It sounds like uh a Tina Marie song from 1986. So they did the the whole, you know, kears and funky8s hair and all that and they, you know, was it was good enough for a a song that I don't think we're going to be thinking about much for the next in the next two weeks. Uh I don't I don't see it doing all that well, but it's fine. No, it was Yeah, I put down in my notes at least the dancing is good and I would put that note down over and over again throughout the rest of the show whenever there was a song I had nothing to say. Um I mean I do kind of want to point sorry I want to point out the one thing though which is that this started very early on and I felt remained for most of it which is that even if the staging had been good and I think for certain cases it was I don't know who was producing the show but they did a terrible job. A lot of it was just horribly shot so you really weren't getting a good sense of what was going on. I think this one was okay, but there's stuff that comes later that just looks terrible. And you don't get the sense that people who put the show together as far as doing the dance choreography had been lazy. It seemed like it had been shoddily put together or put together so late that they had not really figured out where the cameras were supposed to be at any given time. It didn't look very good. No. No. Uh, I would not nominate it for an Emmy, but I did like Kenny G was like I It's funny. He was only like there for a cameo and I'm not even sure that was the real Kenny G, but I thought that was cute. I think it was him. I think it was I do think it was him. I think it was him, but I I wouldn't know enough to like be able to prove a fraud, I guess. Yeah, this that might have been one of the staging things you mentioned because I don't think we ever got like a good look at him. No. And that's Yeah, that's exactly right. They they shot him from a distance. Weird. That's a weird thing to do. He's Kenny G. He's a You know, even if you don't know who that is in detail, Kenny G as a punchline exists and has done so for many decades, he's he's in the ether. People know who Kenny G is, I think. And certainly on CBS, people know who Kenny G is. Yeah. I don't know what that was about. That was that was weird. They should they they could at least have given him a closeup so he could go, "Haha, look. It's Kenny G." Yeah, he might have been on there for like three seconds at most and it was just like enough for me to go, "Oh yeah, that that's Kenny G there." And then was like, "Is it?" And then goes away. So I don't know, maybe Kenny's dead. Yeah. Oh my god, they killed Kenny. Gee. And uh I think that's going to be one of the highlights of the night. I think they were like bad statement. Yeah. As a way to kick off the night, I thought it was all right. Then it just got very bad. Yeah. Right. So they had the first the first um the first award which was artist of the year. What do you And they gave that to Lady They give that to Lady Gaga. And now listen, there are two things that I think we can acknowledge. The first is that they don't really give awards to people who are not in the room. If you don't show up, you're not getting an award. And two, um, Lady Gaga had a good year, but she didn't have an artist of the year kind of year. No, absolutely not. So, it was very weird. Immediately it was like, okay, so it's going to be a participation trophy kind of night, you know. And again, that's not to put a patch on Lady Gaga or her career. It's just, you know, she's video vanguard territory, not artist of the year territory in 2025. Yeah. Also, I just want to say I was reading the comment section from last year's VMAs's podcast thing. Mhm. And a lot of people pointed out to my complaining about why was Lenny Kravitz there, like, well, Lenny Kravitz just had a new album, so it makes sense for him to be at the VAS. And then the first presenter we get is Lenny Kravitz. So I would like to ask again, why the [ __ ] is Lenny Kravitz here? What is he doing? There are some artists that basically only exist to be at awards shows. John Legend is one of them. I think Common is getting up there. Yeah. Well, I'm trying to think of the last time I was Common at the last Grammys. No, I don't think so. Okay. Well, Lenny Kravitz was there and I assumed he was there to like set me up with my outfit for this the the Quarter Quail Hunger Games. Oh, they're making a new The new book just came out. I'm going to go read it. I'm kidding. I don't I haven't read a book in a while. So, Lady Gaga wins for artist of the year and she gets up on stage and she's, you know, she dedicates the award to the audience and says some very nebulous stuff, things that are sort of vaguely platitudinous. And this also set off, you know, the the buzzing in my head started to get a little louder, which is gosh, didn't Lady Gaga make a really big point of supporting trans lives at the Grammys? I don't feel like I made that up. seems like a thing she would do even more right now. Things have gotten worse since then. Nothing. Not a word. So, I was like, "This could be something. It could be nothing." But again, like it's it's sort of like CBS quietly building a case against itself in my head. Could be tin foil hat [ __ ] Feel free to think that it is, but my brain started to think about it. All right. What happened next? Because I left my notes downstairs because I don't care. Uh, I think Lola Young came out and did Messi for like 30 seconds. Oh, right. I one thing I have always been very adamant about is that if you're not in the building, you shouldn't you shouldn't have like an awards segment. I hate the, you know, the second stage. That's not where everyone else is. I think the push performance. Yeah. I don't think they should bother. Just have less performers. The dramat stage. Yeah. And it's also frustrating because I think the push performers are sort of put in a position where they kind of have to do what it is that the show wants them to do because Lola Young doing messy that's like a song from a year ago. And the thing is that uh I think it's even more than that. But she has a new album coming out in like two weeks. There's like three or four singles already out. She just dropped a new single uh called Spiders. And if you have not heard that song, it's [ __ ] great. Oh yeah, that song's legit. Thank you for introducing me that. Yeah. I literally like in my prep for this in the last week I you know I was trying to see who was going to be there and I was like oh you know I remember hearing Messi before this you know let me see what she's up to and here was this brand new song and the music video is very intense anyway you know it just seems so obvious to me that if she was going to be there and I would like her to be there I think that she's got a lot of potential for the next year that she would be doing a song that is from her upcoming record you know so it felt very out of her control. So, you know, you said the MTV VMAs got huge ratings last year. I don't remember why. I think for Chapel Ran, I guess, but maybe I I do also think genuinely that um Meg as a host was a really good call. Mhm. I think we might have even said uh last year that um she really could be kind of like the next generation of person who just ultimately ends up being better at doing these kinds of hosting things than actually being a long-term artist. Yeah. Well, like if if it seemed cuz like hearing about them putting it on CBS, my reaction was the opposite that this is, you know, the MTV VMAs have gotten such a big boost that they have to put it on network TV now. I was like, "No, they have to put on network TV now because otherwise they can't attract anybody to be on the show." That was what my thing was. And certainly even with the, you know, putting it on network TV, not a lot of people were there. So, this is a big thing that we talked about in the leadup to it, um, which is that Taylor Swift didn't show up. And that's another thing, right? In addition to this idea that the that last year it had had, um, an uptick in ratings, the other thing is, I think the last three or four years in a row, Taylor Swift has been there. And the thing to know about Taylor Swift, if you don't know about her, is that in addition to often winning many awards on the night, she is a fan girl of literally everyone. Mhm. She knows every award to every song. She's on her feet the whole time. You know, she is kind of a quintessential part of the show. You know, Taylor Swift is a VMAS fan. So, the fact that she wasn't there was really weird. And the question immediately became why? Is it because her album isn't out yet? Is it because they told her like, "Hey, we're gonna give awards to other people or did her people go in and say, "Hey, don't give Taylor awards this year. We would like Sabrina Carpenter to get X, Y, and Z or whatever." Right? Like these were things that we were at least I was thinking about, right? Because Taylor's people have a lot of control. They do have a lot of say in the industry. And so it sort of became this question of why. Why was she not there? What does that mean? Both for what was happening behind closed doors and what the show would then be like without her presence. Yeah. I could easily see her just not showing up because it's like you know she didn't get nominated for a lot because tortured poet's apartment was like last VMA cycle and you know she's about to get into her new publicity thing with her new album and her lavender marriage coming up and stuff like that. So like she has a lot of prep to do in that regard. But it did make it feel weirdly empty. I feel like last year like you had that momentum of like Taylor's here and it's like it's Brett summer and Chapel Ron Sabrina Carpenter performing and we got all this cool stuff and then it was like this year it's like oh yeah man we got a Yeah, it was like hey here's Ricky Martin and here's Ricky Martin. Okay, here's here's Buster Rimes, here's Mariah Carey. Okay, hold on. I want to say here like there have been like older performances before but like it feels like they are you know normally when the MTV was you know relevant they would have one legacy act do a career spanning performance and they'd give him the video Vanguard award. That's how that's supposed to work. last year went to Katy Perry and uh remember that she got nominated for 143 awards tonight. Oh man. Oh man. But anyway, um but normally they leave like the career spanning performance for one, maybe two. We had like three and they all came right at the beginning of the show. Yep. That was so odd. Like and also keep in mind because they they had the three that were like basically like the video Vanguard Award and then like two other things that were basically the same thing, right? With a little more specificity and then they had the Aussie Osborne tribute Late in the Night and also quite frankly again Lady Gaga is a legacy performer. I mean, like, she can at least say she has a song on the radio, right? Or, you know, she had a song this year that charted, so that's something. And I think and Die with a Smile is still on the like the top 10, but her first song dropped before uh Barack Obama took office. Oh god. Ow. Ow. Ow. No, it was because it was really just like so clearly an excuse to pad for time of like, [ __ ] we need some performers. So like what they gave Ricky Martin like not a video vanguard award but like notable Latin musician. Yeah. Something for for you know Latin music pioneer or something like that. Like I I made a joke in the chat like so Emily this is Ricky Martin. He was popular in the '9s. You were you said he was in Shrek 2. He was in Shrek 2. Yeah. Live and Lita Loca in Shrek 2. Um, no. I What is he doing here? Why? Why him? I don't think it was very odd. And you know, plugged in enough with the Latin music scene to know if he's got like some kind of legacy thing he's promoting right now. I Yeah, I guess we should have checked. This is a This is an example of our own unprofessionalism. But, you know what I do want to say is I'm not going to apologize for being ignorant of Ricky Martin's doings in the last, you know, year or so. You should feel bad. You should feel very bad. Anyway, um I do think it's very So, he came out. I mean, it was fine, right? I think it was a very unremarkable performance, but it was okay. And I I think the thing I said in the chat was like, "Wow." I mean, like the gays just keep going to the gym until the day they die. I mean, this is like unbelievable. Like, the shape that he's in, I was like, "This is profound." Like, good for like good for her. Like, damn. like really really buff and like did a great performance as far as like being able to move on the stage. We'll come back to that again later when we talk about Mariah Carey. Um, but the thing that was really weird to me, again, I'm going to put my my little tin foil hat on. Um, is that they had Jessica Simpson come out like in between him performing and then speaking. Speaking of like speaking of like the the agedness of the uh of the irrelevance of the everybody coming out, right? Well, she came out and said, you know, in 1999 I went on tour with this guy, right? Mhm. And first of all, again, good for her. Um, some very tasteful work done. I I simply, if you say so, as as you know, I respect tasteful work and I think that it's good work. Anyway, um the weird thing that she said was uh she was like, "And isn't he so hot?" And I was like, "This is weird." And then Ricky Martin like talked about his kids most of the time. And I was like, "Are they trying to like straightash Ricky Martin? Do they want us to forget what's happening? This is so strange." Uh this one I'm going to I'm going to say is fine. Honestly, it's okay for um I mean like I I'm I'm I think that one is uh that one I don't want to read too much into. Okay. For for me, the Jessica Simpson isn't He's so hot thing felt like when you're with a straight girl at the bar and she's trying to hype up a gay friend. Yeah, that's how it sounded to me, too. That's That's legit. That's legit. Yeah. I don't know. I just think the whole thing was odd. It was just very weird. It's one of those where you would expect it and to come up and it didn't and so you're just kind of like, huh? Because it's like when you think about Ricky Martin, you think Love and Lita Loca and you think gay, at least if you're my generation. Um I mean they're certainly the first two things that I think about. Um also was strange because you know Jessica Simpson came out for that and then she came out again later with her sister Ashley Simpson. Remember who remembers Ashley? And if you listen, if you do, I guarantee you it's not for a good reason. I I remember it because I saw Chuck Eddie give legendary uh Village Voice critic Chuck Eddie give a speech once back when I was in college and give a talk once and he was so into that Ashley Simpson album. Really? He was like wildly for it. It's not very good that album. No, it's not. It was very very big when I was a kid. So, I I know a lot of those songs. It's It's just got the one song. I'm sorry. I shout out to the Cottonbull performance of LA. Uh if you haven't looked it, look it up as soon as this podcast is over. No, we're I I guess we should mention Yeah. Jessica Simpson was a presenter. Ashley Simpson was a presenter. Paris Hilton was a presenter. We We went back in time 20 years. I I don't know what it was. So weird. It was so bizarre. There was going to be an ad for The Simple Life playing. We were going to hear about Katrina. All right. Well, Ricky Martin came and then what what what kind of came after that? Uh that was Buster Rhymes, I believe. Yes. Immediately after that, we then did another tribute or another Yeah. But this one is even weirder than the Ricky Martin one. It is. I we even had um you know our our friend Andrew Underberger was like, "I expect 5,000 words on this topic." Um which is and and the headline is, "Haven't I seen this before?" Yes. And and better. You know, this is You messaged me were like, "Oh, you might not remember." And I was like, "Of course I remember. It was like two years ago or something." And like Buster Rhymes has become kind of a regular fixture of the MTV VMAs. He's been kind of making his rounds lately. He's sort of having like a late stage like glow up, you know, where suddenly everyone's acknowledging how influential and how original he was, which is great. And obviously, you know, I think we've said in the past that you and I are both fans of his, right? But this was not a good performance at all. No. And the thing is he gave this performance 5 years ago in 2021. It was the exact same performance, the exact same medley of the exact same songs. Yeah, except with, you know, it's been four years, so now he's got four years less energy. Don't we all? Yeah, no kidding. And um he's he sounded bad. His voice was kind of rough. And it was crazy cuz Glorilla came out and she talked and she like wrapped for like a couple seconds twice. And I thought this is Glow on the stage. She's was one of the best rap artists of 2024. What are we doing? Yeah. Apparently, one of the other guys on stage with him was Joiner Lucas, which I don't know if name means anything to you, but like what the [ __ ] was Joiner Lucas doing there? Joiner Lucas doing there. I don't know. I don't know that guy still exists. I was distracted by the like constant bleeping and silencing of words throughout the Buster Rhymes performance where I just could not make out what most of the songs were. Yeah, that that certainly did not help. Like and I don't remember what in those songs. I mean like Buster Rhymes songs go like a mile a minute. So like if he did say something, you know, bleepable, who would even be able to tell? Yeah. And because like when you bleep like a second of like the shortest amount you can bleep, you will lose like 50 words. Yeah. As someone who doesn't know Buster Rhymes's actual music career that much. Yeah. I like I assume he was here to promote the Naked Gun coming out on digital because he's in the Naked Gun. Yeah. He's in there for he's got one scene in the Naked Gun remake. Yeah. They're like we got to get this guy for the VMAs. You mean manslaughter? That's a good line. H god. But what? But he already did this and he it was a video vanguard performance five years ago, but they gave it to the Foo Fighters that year. And I thought it was weird. I was like, well, why do they have busted? Like save him for when you can give him the vid video vanguard award. He was a very good video artist, but they didn't give it to him in 2021 and they didn't give it to him in 2025. So, I don't They gave him some madeup new thing. Yeah, they gave him a new thing and then he gave a speech where he was like, "What? What the [ __ ] made it take so long? Why am I just now getting an award from you guys?" Oh, wait. Did he say that? Cuz that was a thing that Mariah Carey also did. They both said it. Wow. Oh, wow. I miss I I like the shout out to the late great Amanda Lewis. Yeah, that was huge. Um, for people who don't know, she worked at MTV and had a huge influence on on the rap artists that were there, like making sure that they were actually properly represented on the network. Um, but yeah, so it was very nice of him to and she Yeah. She just passed away in the last year. So, I It's one of those things where you're reminded that that Buster Rimes is a standup guy. Mhm. because, you know, MTV wasn't going to talk about it at the VMA, so it was nice that he did. So, yeah, that's a that was a solid moment. I'm glad I saw that. So, that's we're going to we got to take our victories where we can take where we can get them. I'll I'll give them faint praise, which is that because they did not limit the speeches when people won. There was a lot of crediting in these very long speeches to people who don't usually get acknowledgement. And I did like hearing about that. That was nice. I'm used to the Oscars where if you take longer than 15 seconds, they'll shoot you. Yeah. Um I I think they could attract more celebrities by uh I think that was a policy to attract more celebrities. Just let them talk. Just just talk up there. Say whatever you want to say. We don't give a [ __ ] Yeah. Yes. So there was another performance uh which was Tate McCrae. Yeah. I mean, like Tate McCrae basically exists to uh show her stuff in like live performances. She's a dancer who happens to be a pop star at this current time. Yep. Once again, in my notes, at least the dancing is good. Um, yes, I kept making dumb jokes about her being in a very fancy litter box, right? Because she was doing the sand dancing. Um, I'm gonna quote or paraphrase at least a tweet that basically sums up my view of Tate McCrae. I no way I'm gonna be able to find who said this, but they said that Tate McCrae looks like and feels like the rival in a movie about a pop star. Like you see her in the background representing the struggle of the competition of fame, but she doesn't have any lines. like she Yeah, she has no main character energy as a pop star whatsoever. She's got a couple decent songs. Not the not the wannabe Pussycat Dolls one she performed today, but I think Revolving Door is okay. That's the one she started with. And honestly, weirdly, her live singing voice is actually kind of better than uh her singing voice on the actual recordings of the song. So that doesn't bode well for what the recordings sound like then. Oh, she she is very much not a very good singer. She sounds uh her singing is not very good. That's the main problem with her. She's got a mouthful of marbles. What's the one that has like a fan base that really hypes? Is it Tate McCrae who has a really passionate fan base or is it Addison Ray or or you're thinking of Addison Ray? Is I mean Tate McCrae has her fans and she has certainly more success than Addison Ray. But like I if I I think people are more enthusiastic about Addison Ray than they are Tate McCrae. That's good because I was getting them confused because of their similar last names. I was like if I insult Tate McCrae, am I gonna get [ __ ] yelled at online by a 13year-old? No. Tate McCrae. Um, whatever fan base Tate McCrae has, it's because she uh she believes in the fundamentals, let's say. She she does her thing. She does what pop stars are supposed to do. She looks good. She shakes her ass. She's got a couple bops, but uh she doesn't bother you with any um deep thoughts or diary lyrics about her personal life. So you don't have to ever have to worry about what's going on there. Yeah, my my head was empty the entire time of that performance. So I guess that is good. I I suppose. All right. My head is always empty. So, you know, not a major change for me. But um then we had another award which I think maybe not as as odd as as Lady Gaga winning artist of the year but still also stood out as like really which was song of the year which went to uh Ros with Bruno Mars Apeta or AP as I sometimes hear it called on the TV. Yeah, I' I I'm glad to know how it's pronounced now. I'm going to call it AP. I don't particularly like that song, but uh I get why it is a big hit. Same way I got why Dance Monkey was a big hit. It's a good comparison. It's a very uh aggressively catchy song. And then, you know, they Ros got making the K-pop appearance for uh the token K-pop appearance that we get every year. And uh she went on and on and on thanking herself or is do I remember that right? She did a reverse mccah. She thanked her younger self instead of future her, right? Because did MCA like like thank his future self or whatever or like anyway doesn't matter. Yes, I remember. Yes, he he did do something like that when he won his Oscar. Yeah, this was the night of people pulling out folded up pieces of paper out of nowhere. Yep. Lady Gaga was was black. It was all I was I was like, "What did What did she write it in?" It's one of those little like child's thing where it's a black paper and then you take a little wood carve and you make it and has little colors on the background. Um uh yes, Ros's speech was nice because she gave a shout out to uh a small K-pop group called uh Blackpink, which I thought was really nice of her. Um I think they're going somewhere. I think they might have a future there. Maybe they can collab at some point. Well, anyway, Ros won an award. You know, she was there. You you you know, A Opatu was a big hit, so you can't really uh It's not as wonky as some of the other awards. Yeah. I mean, like I kind I kind of got it. Certainly the music video has a very Scott Pilgrim vibe to it. Mhm. Yeah. You know, it's really seems like they're in sex bomb. Yeah. as as someone probably the only person here who likes that song in video, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm fine with that, Lenny." Yeah. It's not my favorite song of the year, but you know, it's like sure if it has to be one of these. It's not going to be Kendrick, so it better be. Might as well. Yes. So, I guess before we continue, we can say Kendrick was not there and therefore won no awards, even though obviously Kendrick could win every award, which is what happened at the Grammys and could have very easily happened again here. Yeah, he's going to win all all of next year's Grammys, too. He'll find a way. Grammys are like that. So, we've arrived. We um I think that we will probably spend more on the next uh moment in this show than we talk about anything else that happens afterwards because this is when we get to the performance of the night. Sabrina Carpenter doing her the second single off of her brand new record, Man's Best Friend. And the song is called Tears. A song that I think is good. Not my favorite on the record, a record that I have come to adore and think that is actually as a record even better than Short and Sweet. But the performance, which is I mean so often the case with Sabrina, um is really what sells it. It's what makes it so great. Um it really makes me excited even before we get into the performance itself. I've been thinking about this a lot, you know, because Manchild she's been doing out on tour while she's still doing this sort of extended short and sweet thing. And you can tell that even though that song is sort of on the journey betw twixed, short and sweet in Man's Best Friend, that it doesn't quite fit with the tour she's doing. tears though we see on on uh the VMAs and you start to get the first glimpse of what the next tour is going to look like and holy [ __ ] it's going to be great. I had a lot of doubts about Man's Best Friend as being a tourable thing but the more I think about it the more I think that this is going to be like a tour that even I a 45year-old might actually show up for. Might actually go to a Sabrina Carpenter concert just for it. Why was it so good? Todd, you also liked this. She said Sabrina Carpenter says trans rights. I wasn't Listen, I was not putting you on the spot to do that. I was gonna say we could we could talk about how good the show was. I was I was building up to it. You've ruined the whole thing. I I liked her giant skid row set that she built for it. I was like, damn, I want to spend an entire like 20 minutes here in this shitty looking city street that she set up for herself. Yeah. I I sent it to a friend of mine. He He wrote, "Didn't expect the the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle crossover." Oh, right. She came out of the [ __ ] sewer. I don't think I don't know if she knows what uh prostitutes do. Yeah. I was like, "This is incredible." I was like, "Sabrina Carpenter is a like a Ninja Turtle or April O'Neal or the Shredder." Yeah. Tour and and when she opened the the sewer manhole cover, uh it was like glowing with it was glowing green. Yeah. Yeah. It was amazing. It was a secret of the use. Yeah, my friend wrote if if Master Splinter was a baddie. Anyway, insert your joke here. They all work. If Oh my god, I'm so sorry, Master Splinter. Oh my god, Hamacho Yoshi. I can't believe we did you like this. Yeah, in in the in the '9s cartoon. In the '90s cartoon, obviously Splinter's separate identity and all the Anyway, but yeah. No, it was it was really energetic. She really like I love the way that she plays into this public image of herself that she's really finely crafted. I used to think Sabrina Carpenter was a really boring artist and that's because she kind of was uh for the longest time and then uh she she figured out how to do a lot of fun with herself and to craft this like really unique sort of runchy Dolly Parton sort of vibe Betty Boopish. And I love that she keeps leaning into that more and more with her staging and with her performances and stuff like that. I think Men's Best Friend is the end of the road on this TVH. I think that she's going to need a new shtick after this one, but I do think she's I think I think she's gotten away with it a second time. And I really wasn't sure when they dropped Manchild. Um I was like it I felt like it was maybe self-parody at first, but the more I I kind of inspected that song. And then the same thing with the album, the more I realized like, no, what she was doing was taking the very basics of Short and Sweet, which is like just a Hit Factory album, right? Like that's a record where they sat down and said, let's make some hits, you know, and like put it together in a way that makes sense, but is not overly complicated. Like the things that make uh Short and Sweet Sonically interesting is that there's a lot of little like background vocal flourishes that they that they pepper in throughout, right? And then she has this sort of interesting identity that she's carved out and has like this sort of silly stuff like that's that me espresso and all that. But Man's Best Friend is a robust complex album with like so much instrumentation and so many key changes and so many um like tempo changes. It's a it's a wild record. It's a record that like kind of traverses decades. Like it's got some ' 60s vibes to it, but it's mostly It sounds like it came out in 1980. Except what if 1980 was a good year? Like I don't even know how else to explain it. It's so But it's great. It's like such a good record. Anyway, she did in fact like the pitch is she comes out of a sewer and there's a bunch of drag queens on the one side. There's a bunch of trans women on the other side. There's I think some general like gays and they peppered throughout. And you know they're dancing. She does a dance break. She goes into a a a phone booth for some reason and then by the time she comes out there are signs everywhere you know and there's like trans rights and like you know like protect the dolls and like pay you know like tip a doll and you know like you know you know protect drag performers and I couldn't believe it because this really ran quite counter to what it was I was getting the vibe of from LL CoolJ up until that moment and I thought man Sabrina Carpenter doesn't give a [ __ ] I bet they did tell her not to do this. I wonder at what point those things found their way to the stage. Did they Did she tell them that she was going to do that? Cuz there's a real possibility that she didn't. And I actually kind of hope that's what happened cuz the the camera certainly didn't focus on any of them. Like that was the thing that like there was not like a shot that you could clearly make out what the sign said. They made it they in the staging. I think they made it so that it was unavoidable. There was no way they had to show them. Yeah, there's definitely like there you had to see them, but they didn't like zoom up on them the way that you would expect if it's like they had been told, "Hey, we're going to have these signs out. We're going to have this message." Yeah. I mean, there's a closeup on one of the performers holding it or something. Yeah, if it had been a couple years ago, sure. But 2025 is a is a different planet Earth anyway. Yeah. I yeah, I find it very interesting and it's one of those things I don't think we're going to get an answer on the at what point was CBS aware that those signs were coming out on stage? I do think that Sabrina Carpenter might like look if they don't know I she might get burned a little bit on it but I don't know how burned she can get because the thing is not only is Sabrina Carpenter very powerful on her own but also uh Taylor Swift is kind of like her Biffle at this point. They're like besties. Yeah. And I'll tell you I mean like if you have Taylor Swift watching your back woo you're in good shape. And like Taylor Swift needs a new bestie because apparently it's not Blake Lively anymore. Damn. I don't follow that drama. I mean, look, I as as a as a as a Blake Lively fan, it was sad for me to see, but uh undeniably it is a thing that seems to be happening. Anyway, the point is it was interesting like that happened and I was like, what's the story here? Yeah. And it's especially interesting when you consider Sabrina's Carpenters's long history of of clearly pandering to the conservative mindset and presenting a conservative imagery in order to appeal to this rightle leaning demographic of anti-feminist agenda that's being popularized in 2025. I mean, I don't So, here's the thing. I You will not be the first or the last. um a fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre fre frequent guest of the show Mark Rondon also like if you watch his review of of man's best friend he has a very different view of it than I do but um I don't see her in those terms at all like that's ne like I don't yeah I've never gone like oh man like so conservative Sabrina Carpenter like it's just you know I mean if you see her give interviews about this record it's really just the stuff that I'd always assumed about her which is she was like you know you can play submissive and there's a kind of dominance in that or you need it and there's a kind of just submissiveness when that's what's satisfying to you and there that's I'm allowed to want that if that's what I want like that doesn't mean anything for anybody else other than me and you know the nice thing about Sabrina Carpenter as a performer is that like she's doing that thing where you're like man I don't know if you're selling a um a dream a fantasy or if this is actually how you're doing it but like she seems to be doing something that nobody does which is just enjoying her youth. Yeah, not a lot of people do that. So, if she's pulling that off, huge. Um, but yeah, I mean, I think undeniably as somebody who has raised a lot of money in the past um for a lot of different organizations, but a lot of them are are are LGBTQ plus. Um, I was not surprised to see this once it happened, but I do think it's the first time that I we've ever quite seen it on this level. Have you taken note of that before, Todd? Have you seen her do something that white was quite this literal? Literal in what way? In the sense that like literal signs that were like trans rights. No, I've never seen her uh say something polit and like she uh I've never seen her say it with her mouth to this day. So, she said it with a bunch of signs on stage, which is incredible. But no, I can't imagine what it would sound like if she did try and make a stand. And like I know what it sounds like when Lady Gaga does it or Chapel Ron does it, but she doesn't seem like the kind of person to like actually like stand there and say it with her mouth. It would sound weird. Interesting. It would sound weird. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the way she did it. That's that's a great way to do it. It's smart, I think. You know, again, like to just literally have people on stage and let them kind of like get their flowers and be good at what they do, you know. I think that that I think there's a real power in that. Anyway, you know, the bottom line is I don't I mean, did do did did any of us come away from this show thinking there was anything that came close? Maybe one thing. I think there was maybe one other performance on the night. Yeah. So, that was it wasn't just that she said a nice thing. It was just that also it was a very good performance. It was and um as per your theories about maybe some forced a-olitical uh bent on the show, Sabrina didn't give any speeches. She did give one. She got one speech and it was very short and there was a moment in which they bleeped something out and it didn't seem like Oh, right. I forgot she did win something, didn't she? She won one award and I will say album of the year. Yeah. And what's interesting is that she won for Short and Sweet, which is an album that does not have the song on it. Um, which I found to be kind of fascinating. And then, you know, we can skip ahead at least on this part. You know, there are a number of other awards, excuse me. Um, including best pop and uh, and video of the year, both of which went to Ariana Grande. Now, I don't wish, this is not me saying like boo this woman, but I don't think that what she crafted was better or that she's had a better year as a pop artist than Sabrina Carpenter, who arguably is like tied for number two still, at least it, you know, in 2024 certainly with Chapel Rowan. Like, it's really just Kendrick who's the only person that comes out ahead. So, why is Ariana getting these awards two in a row? Very strange. It was very odd to me. I was like, did they originally intend to give her these awards, Sabrina Carpenter, and then they decided not to? Like, they punished her. I don't know. It was This is more tin This is more tin foil hat [ __ ] to be sure. I I think the weird thing is is that Ariana was there and she like presented a few times but she didn't perform which I thought was very strange for someone nominated for several categories and winning several categories. Yeah. Yeah. It it did strike me as odd. I didn't think Ariana was gonna I mean Ariana did release some stuff this year but it wasn't like on everyone's lips. Yeah. I didn't even know about the video that one video of the year until I looked it up. Apparently it's a 27 minute short film. Yeah. No, I started watching a bit of and I was like, but they literally have a category that's like best long form video, which is what I assumed she was going to win. Yeah, it's I I just don't know what to make of that. Uh, you know, if if it's an award for most video. Yeah. Very very very strange to me. Anyway, again, it's it is very, you know, I don't want to pretend like I I've got some kind of real evidence here, right? like something I can flourish out of my hand and be like, "And here's the proof." You know, Sabrina Carpenter was intentionally robbed for being nice to the trans people. Like, I don't I don't know. But it did seem odd. It seemed very strange for somebody who has been so successful, who has a music video that has been talked about as being one of the best music videos of the last 5 years. Um, you know, and really like the only reason it's not considered de facto the best one out there is because not like us exists. No, Manchild deserved uh every award they give for videos. I love that video. It's very good. It's super fun. Um so gosh, there's a bunch of bad stuff. What are the bad things we want to talk about? Do we want to talk about Alex Warren? Do we want to talk about the Aussie trivia? I mean, these things are all rough. Well, did was did did we did we skip Mariah? Oh, we That's right. Right. And also Post Malone and Jelly Roll. I don't think Do you have anything to say about that performance? It sure is. Post Malone and Jelly Roll. Hated it. I hated it so much. I've been avoiding Jelly Roll for years now and I hated that. I hated that [ __ ] song. I am going to make a top 10 worst songs of 2025 list just to put that on there. That was brutal. That was awful. I hated it. Uh, Post Malone, I liked your Dallas Cowboys jersey. Repped for the home team. Congrats on number one. I've been to the uh Post Malone Canes when everybody get HRT. Uh it's quite good and shaped like a Dallas Cowboys star. Uh nothing against you as a person. That song was [ __ ] ass and I hated that performance. Also, you were in Germany at the time and I don't think you should be allowed to perform at the VMAs if you're in Germany. That's my personal opinion. That's you're not performing at the VMAs. You're performing in Germany and then you're just showing the live show. Yeah. And also like what what is the time zone difference? Like how long ago was this taped? Like Yeah, for sure. Cuz that's that's like at least I mean I would be more than five hours in the future, right? That's more like six. Yeah, I I I strongly disagree with things filmed at uh second locations. And I hate pre-taped segments. Like the only time I was okay with it was during the 2021 Grammys because there was a pandemic going on. But other than that, no. I I I strongly oppose pre-taped segments. Do not appreciate. Also, that song isn't very good. No. I said in chat that it sounds like a song that's written to be American Idol walk-off music. Yeah, cuz you had a bad day. Dave. Yeah. As I recall, that's like the least country song off of Post Malone's country album. So it it's it sounds like, you know, streaming era GOP so much of Post Malone stuff does. Can you pull a Chance the Rapper and go back to like just rambling about drugs instead of whatever this is because this is bad. Okay. Okay. Mariah, we promised we would talk about Mariah. Uh, you know, I actually saw Mariah Carey last year. I travel across country every year to visit my family and I stopped in Vegas and uh Mariah, you know, was doing a show. So I was like, let's say, you know, let's stop in Vegas and see Mariah. It was fine. It was a decent enough show for, you know, a show that ended like right on the dot because it's a Vegas show and they want you back out gambling. And this was basically just like kind of exactly that. Same songs performed the same way. She clocked in for the job. Yeah. She clocked in and then she clocked out. Yeah, it was a it was weird for me just because, you know, you've got all these other people performing. You know, we were talking about um Tate McCrae and like all the movement that she does, how she's a great dancer and like yeah, you know, we were talking about Sabrina and like what a what a wonderfully staged performance she gave. Mariah Carey was I mean she was bound in tight to what she was wearing. Like like I was like I was like [ __ ] you can't move. I can't move looking at you. And she when like she it was hard. She was like very wooden like walking in those those big platform boots. And I was like this is this is ungracious. This is unkind. Who made her wear this? She is very un she you can tell she's uncomfortable on stage and I was like I hate this for her. I hate it. You know and she sings great. She's Mariah [ __ ] Carrie, you know. I mean like undeniably, you know, I'm never going to take it away from her that she's got great range. She's got a number of really great songs. I like her. She's extremely [ __ ] We know what's not like, what's not to like. But gosh, it was just very weird to watch her like practically hobbling around by comparison from everybody else. I was like, this stinks. She should also be able to wear like big baggy clothes at this point. She You could dress the way everybody else does comfortably. Good grief. I'm 45. Do you think I would dress like that? Not in your life. Yeah, I put in my notes. At least she can sing. I mean, you got to understand like when you're Mariah Carey, you can't move very much. You have to save every drop of breath. Yeah. And if you want to see why that is, uh, once again, look up Ashley Simpson Bowl or Rose Bowl performance of Lala and you'll understand why you either lip-sync or you don't [ __ ] move. Yeah. When I when I saw Mariah Carey, she had a lot of costume changes. And I don't think it was just for costume changes, but also for her to recover her voice in between songs because she had to hit those whistle notes and she was not lip syncing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's amazing. I will say again, not to, you know, make the whole night about Sabrina Carpenter, but I will say that uh a lot of songs on Man's Best Friend, there's a lot of lyrics um like My Man and His Willpower or whatever it's called. Good grief. There's so many words. Great song. Great song. Can't wait to see it live. But she is going to have to work on her [ __ ] breath control big time in order to be able to pull a lot of those things off. And I'm excited. I believe that she'll be able to do it. But I think that she also will have to have a lot of costume changes. It's going to be very interesting to see how she pulls that off. But yes, I think that also makes sense. This is the thing that you're saying is that she has to expend so much energy in order to be able to like move around the scales as effortlessly as it seems like she does. Yeah. But that's also I guess why it felt like a very like clocked in type of performance where it's like it's very good. I'm not going to say it's bad, but it was very much like she got up there, she sang, you know, we belong together and then she was like, "And now I'm done." Like I did it. I hit the notes I'm supposed to hit. Yeah. Let's go. Accept this award. Get the speech. Get the [ __ ] out. You know, it's I said this in the chat, but like it is funny that she is finally getting the She said this was her first VMA, her first award. Yeah. And it's funny. Oh, and she was the first one to call it a moon, man. The first one to call it a It's a moon person since 2017. Very suspicious. I transition to the moon man. How many times am I going to put this tinfoil hat on top of my head? They called it a moon man. What happened? Apparently in 2017 the moon person came out as non-binary. I we've we've been doing this uh recap for at least that long. I have never heard of this. I well I I didn't know that it was it was I just thought that they you know they had removed the gender for like what just nebulous reasons and then I I remember thinking before we went into the show I was like gosh you know I've always thought Moon person is silly and in any other year than this year if they were just like [ __ ] it we're going back to Moonman does anybody care I would be like not me I don't give a [ __ ] but it's 2025 and boy this is a hell of a year to hear people call it a moonman again I was like Yeah, I guess I just got really suspicious of Moon Person. Like, you know, I obviously I supported them coming out, but like when I saw them going on like Lauren Southern's podcast and talking about HP, I was like, this is really strange coming from nonbinary transition from a non-binary hunk of metal. Yes. I was like I was like, you're obviously a munite. I don't know what we're doing here. Anyway, um what else have we got? What else is on this list? I will say Mariah was more animated afterwards when she got to just compliment Ariana Grande and the two struggled to try to hug each other in their like awful shoes and constricting gowns than she was actually performing. She seemed really excited to talk to Ariana Grande. Yeah. Well, she said like, "Why have I never gotten a VMA before? Damn it." It's because Well, because you don't make very good videos. Like yeah, you've got like two memorable videos, heartbreaker and honey, and other ones you just, you know, frolicking in a field or whatever. I don't Are you forgetting the music video for hashtag beautiful where she is in a barn and dancing in front of headlights? I do remember that actually. That's a That's pretty decent. I mean, like they're they're fine. They're utilitarian like but like no one's ever thought of Mariah Carey as like making particularly amazing videos the way you would say it for like Madonna or Whitney or Janet like for one of the for maybe the biggest artist of you know the entire 90s a very good year era for MTV not really I wouldn't even put her on a journey grade when has she ever played a keyboard on the side of a wall. Yeah, I will say one thing also is that like I was thinking about last year where it's like okay last year Katy Perry won the video Vanguard award which you know kind of made sense both in that Katy Perry has had some you know memorable music videos and also she had an album to promote that everyone listened to. I was like well why is Mariah here for this? I think she said that she did have a new one coming out. Yeah. And then she was like by the way I have a new album coming out in two weeks. I was like there it is. We got her. All right. So then Lady then Lady Gaga did her Madison Square Garden thing and you you you heard the that new song that Dance of the Dead or whatever it is which is doing nothing. It like debuted and then just flatlined immediately which is strange because the song is good. It's pretty good. Yeah, I like more than Abracadabra. Wow. I don't know if I agree with that. I'd have to think about it. I didn't think Abracadabra was very good at all. Well, agree to disagree. I will say that that Mayhem as a record did not stick with me. You know, again, if we're if we're looking at at albums across this year and it's been a weird year, that is an album I think I listened to for maybe like a week, week and a half and then have not really listened to since. Yeah, I don't think it really stuck with a lot of people and I hope people don't get upset with me saying that. It feels like one of those, you know, the type of album that comes out that gets good acclaim and the fans really like it, but it's not going to like be a trends setter. It is the six Lady Gaga album, you know? I wanted to like it and I didn't hate it. It just didn't, you know, I didn't find myself going, man, I'm going to listen to these songs until I've, you know, worn down the groove. Yeah. Well, I mean, the problem is is that she was using a lot of her creative energy um on Joker Foy 2, uh which is what got her artist of the year probably. I I'd assume I can't wait for Joker Folia 3 coming out later this year. But um Hey, Alex Warren. Uh oh. He won best he won best new artist which seemed pretty obvious. Although again, you know, Sombra was up for that and you know I would have been certainly happy to see uh that happen instead. But Alex Warren kind you know like if there are two songs that have dominated the entire year, it has been Die with a Smile and Ordinary. Like that's that's it. Those are the two songs the whole year. Yeah. Well, I already did my um video review of it. You can watch my video of it. Uh I'm not a fan. I don't think it's very good. But this performance, Todd, was very like they really like tried to amp it up. They were like this this performance goes to 11. Like it didn't make it better. No, I mean if anything like a smaller, more intimate version might be a better version of it. I don't know. No, wait. I've heard the wedding version like agree with that the empty pomposity of that song it it just doesn't have enough to it to justify that level of pomp and circumstance. It just doesn't just making it louder makes it worse. Yeah. It's very strange because to me, you know, I I listened to it and I and today I was I was like I'm gonna I'm gonna listen to a [ __ ] ton of this. I've never really listened to anything beyond that one song. and he obviously has had other songs that have gotten a lot of listens. So, I was like, well, let's see what else is here. And the thing is, it doesn't matter how loud he makes things. It doesn't seem to like, for some reason, everything he does feels solidly like we're keeping it in neutral. I don't know how to explain it. It just feels like nothing. Like I'm going nowhere interesting ever with his songs. They're just so deeply boring and making them louder and adding like more instruments does not seem to change that at all. No. And it's like the the only interesting thing about him is that his voice is so bad. He said he does sound like he's going to do like a really bad karaoke rendition of What a Fool Believes. Yeah. Uh I already used this joke in the video. I'm going to say it again. He sounds like Sam Smith at 80% speed. I I'm was going to say that this was my first exposure to Alex Warren, having like heard the name but never heard the music. And my takeaway is that he felt like as if Ed Cheren took the substance. It was very strange. I was like, I don't get anything from this. This is the most generic 2010 slop I've heard in my life. If it means something to you, it means something to you. God, I was like, "This is so empty." Empty is the word. Yeah. Even the staging, it was just like nothing. It was nothing. I I It drained from my head immediately. At least the bad stuff I can remember. All right. Um Well, speaking of things that you'll remember then, the Aussie tribute. Oh, I remember Aussie. All right. Oh my god. This was the lowest point of the night. It was sucked. This was terrible. Okay, so there is like rock and roll does, you know, especially metal does not exist in any like major capacity anymore. So they had to get like the biggest names they could get for the Aussie tribute who could actually do a decent Aussie impression. And what they got was the British uh rocker Young Bloodood, who is uh awful. He's and really unpleasant grading uh presence in everything I've ever seen of him except the one MGK uh collab he did which I really liked during that like uh year and a half that I liked MGK. My condolences. Yeah. Um but he is like an an extremely obnoxious presence. He did his thing. He was still the best performer in that tribute. It was rough. It was like, "Oh man, this guy, he's trying too hard to like sound nice as a singer or not sound metal as a singer. He was really weird. He looked like Alexander Scarsgard Crow. It was just strange." And I was like, well, he look he in uh in look and in presence, he looks a lot like um Jared Leo Joker. Oh my god. Oo, Joker. Yeah, you're right. I I was like, well, maybe Stephen Tyler can can sing this. You know, he has the he has the voice. Maybe he'll save this performance. Oh, I feel so bad for you because you didn't because the thing is I knew it was going to go down that way because you know um he's retired. Yeah. Because he can't sing anymore. And I guess I had a moment where I thought, well, maybe if he just does it once in a great while, things will be okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was very drunk karaoke vibes. He was It was funny because he was doing his uh you know Aerosmith uh adlibs. I was like you can't be doing that on a on a [ __ ] Black Sabbath song. It It's not the same. Oh my god. I did I didn't realize this, but it says featuring Nuno Bettin Court on uh the MTV uh video. Nuno Bettincourt was the lead guitarist for the band Extreme. Oh my god, I didn't even realize. I don't think they mentioned him during the show. Like we are really No one plays guitar anymore is what I'm getting from that. Yes, it turn it turns out that rock and roll can die. Yeah, it died with Azie and then we threw the whole genre in the coffin with him. Yeah. Um it was brutal. It was really like it was a sad thing to watch and I I just thought like, boy, Aussie, you deserve so much better than this. Yeah. What are we doing? We gave him his flowers at his final concert when he was alive. That that will have to do this. I don't know what this was. Awful. Awful. Then they had both Young Bloodood and and Stephen Tyler come in and like sing at the same time for like the final song of the medley. And that was just bad. That was just awful. I don't What the [ __ ] were they doing? It was s It was sad. It was very sad. It was very sad. Uh anyway, yeah, that happened. Gosh, that really happened. That really did happen. And then um they have the same mouth. Like he's the Young Bloodood is the only one who has Aerosmith's mouth. That's why they picked it. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. They were like, "Let me see those twins." Gotcha. You're got it. Um, oh, also I just want to say I know we haven't talked too much about the actual award speeches, but I will say like I said earlier, I do appreciate when Ariana did win that she credited like every single person who worked on her [ __ ] short film. Yeah, she Yeah. Which I, you know, I really appreciate that as a film major. I'm like, cool. Uh, what I really appreciate is that she finished out her speech with, "Thank you to my therapist and gay people," which is, as a gay person, I was like, "Wow, oh my god." And as her therapist, I was I felt good, too. So, but yeah. Uh, all gay people got a big shout out from Ariana. You You I was disappointed. I was like, "What about What about me, the straight lady?" When is anyone going to think about the straight lady? When will you think about me? Ariana, what about me, the straight lady? What about me? Quit pandering to your gay audience. We have Yeah. Yeah. Give it a rest of the straight women. Come on. Anyway, uh yes, that was very nice of her. Um you know, I think maybe does CBS just look at it and go like, "Well, nebulous gays." That's okay. Just don't bring up pronouns. It's It's the Moon Man. I don't know. How did this tinfoil hat get on my head again? Um anyway, uh who did we have after that? Jay Belvin who we didn't like we're completely ignorant of. Uh he's still he's still out there. He's still doing his thing. Um he was like the one of the first Reggaon guys I was aware of back when Regaton started blowing up again in the 2017ish era. But like I I'd never have anything to say about the Regaton people. I sorry my vast Latino audience. Listen, I saw Sabrina Carpenter vibe to it. So, it must I mean that's good enough for me. And yeah, I I had nothing to say about it. Cats Eye won something. Yes, they did. They won. They won. They won. They won something. Oh, and and uh and the the women who did the singing for um K-pop Demon Hunters Hunters, whatever. Yeah. Stay tuned for our uh podcast exclusive Patreon uh podcast of K-pop Demon Hunters. Yes. So, if you don't hate us yet, just wait. You don't know what to say about it. Kind of uncomfortable because it was very clear that was like, "Oh [ __ ] this is a big hit." But it's too late to actually include them as like a performance, so we'll just have that like the voice actresses show up and be like, "Hi, we were in a successful movie. Here's an award." It's sad because they're like they're the K-pop Demon Hunters is like the only artist doing anything right now. Huntress don't miss or whatever it goes. So, they uh they had to be there. But like if that movie had blown up a month earlier, we would have like a live Huntress performance. I am dead certain of it. Oh, absolutely. then would have had a mega stallion like that bridge version like the Bruno. I if they are not attempting to turn those three singers into like an actual K-pop group, I don't know what they're doing out there. Like I can easily see like a gorillas thing happen with that where they do some sort of like live screen performances or something like that. Yeah, I absolutely it's it's got to it's going to happen simply because no no where else is the money going to go right now? They're the only ones doing any doing anything. But Alex Warren. Oh, Christ. I can't take any more Alex Warren. He sang his worst song, too. He started with Eternity, which is even worse than ordinary. There were two different songs. Oh, yeah. Um, man. Well, we're we're skipping around. I don't Did you have anything to say about um they had a there was a country portion right? I I I do like that Bailey Zimmerman one that he did with Kid Loy. I thought that that's a good sign. I wouldn't mind hearing that more than about that. And then who is it? Megan [ __ ] Oh yeah, Megan [ __ ] Yeah, she was over on the Dorito stage. Oh, and she was wearing that. Didn't I say like what is this like [ __ ] like Steepford ass? It's a very odd like like if Sabrina Carpenter was wearing it, you'd be like, "Oh, this is like a joke, right? Like she's doing her goofy thing that she does." But like I don't know this woman. So I was like, "Is this literal? What is what's happening?" I'm still holding out before I form any opinions about Megan [ __ ] I'm making no assumptions. I just I saw the costume and I had questions. Yeah, this this part of the show is honestly like at this point the VMAs have been going on for two hours and we've hit like the notable portions of it, but now it's like the scragglers that for some reason are placed at like the dead end of the show. There was one I liked that that they saved towards the end. Guess we're coming up on it right now. Yeah, we've arrived. We've made it to Somber. The other great performance of the night. Yeah, that was a really good performance. And um I mean you you you can count me as like a a somber supporter with no e supporter. I like the kid. I think he's a I think he's going to be very big or at least I think he should be. One of the only things that happened this year that I'm somewhat enthusiastic about. Can't wait for him to do a collab with Solemn. Shut up. Uh I'm sorry. Yeah. I don't um I don't know why he's not like a big star yet because he's got he's destroying Spotify. He is racking up the streams. Yeah, I noticed that too. I was like, "Wow, holy [ __ ] shit." Yeah, I think he's like the only thing in the top 20 that isn't Sabrina Carpenter or K-pop Demon Hunters right now. Yeah. I mean, I listen, if if if you're going to shoot your shot and say you think that in the next two years he's going to be the next guy that blows up, I would love that. I'm completely pro that I the stuff that I heard on the record I thought sounded pretty good and I thought that his live performance was great. Yeah, I think he's if he's only like 18 or something. He's like a a Muppet Babies the 1975. He's like he's like 70 lb soaking wet. Yeah. He's also like not having a waist in interview and I was like truly you have no waist. I was like this is phenomenal. Oh yeah. He's like seven feet tall. He's like a He's a He's a walking stick. He is the thinnest man. Anyway, um and he's and he was and he's very cute. You're very cute. Yeah. Yeah, that that was like except for Sabrina and Sombra. I I I was not thrilled with anything I saw today. Yeah, there was Conan Gray who did that game. Boy, he was doing the most. Yeah, I I don't know anything about Conan Gray. I I was like looking at my Spotify and I have people watching under my liked songs and I like that song better than whatever song he performed tonight which was like the song you hear in the credits of a kids movie that an animal dies in. It was very like I called it romcom trailer music. It it's very that it was just very nothing of a song. Very faux inspirational. Um, I wish it was just the gay Romeo stuff because I was like, I'm kind of into this. But I think I just wanted to watch two boys make out on TV and then I was like, [ __ ] it. It's the I was really bummed out cuz the actual ending is he drinks poison and dies. And I was like, huh? So CBS Oh, how did this tin boil get on my head again? I love this idea that CBS like put the hatony. You could do a gay. You can only be gay if you die at the end. They have to put up a title card that's like we do not condone this behavior. Yes. This very gay man can only be gay if he dies tragically. Uh I didn't know I didn't know Conan Gray was still like an ongoing concern. Like I remember he had like one song like five years ago. Very strange. I don't get it. I I I'm not a He put out a new album, tried listening to it, was not impressed. Sorry. Longtime listener of the podcast, Conan Gray. I get the feeling like he's one of those artists who gets by and exists not through like dedicated hardcore listeners, but rather through like the fact that his music shows up a lot if you're on Spotify shuffle and you're listening to other songs that sound similar by better artists. I mean, congrats to his uh his publicist or his agent, whoever got him on the MTV stage because I have I don't I didn't know he had any buzz behind him. I'm surprised Cat's Eye didn't get his spot and like he certainly went all out in the staging for it, but yeah. Uh good good for you for uh you know, sticking around. I haven't thought of you since you know the lockdowns, Conan Gray. Uh, was there anyone else? And then Ariana got Yeah, she and she brought up the director and he was a tiny man. Oh, yeah. It was like not taller than Ariana. Well, he's taller than Ariana cuz Ariana is wearing 12 billion inch platform heels. She always actually didn't check to see if she was doing that. I just assume nine times out of 10 that is what she does. Yeah. No, they kept struggling to reach the microphone and there was like a solid minute of Ariana trying to figure out if she should hand the award to someone else so she could get the paper to read out the credits or if she should like hold it and then hold it on one other hand like what to do. Uh and then the show just kind of ended. Yeah. I just stopped going to end. I don't know. Ariana seemed very proud of her, you know, short film. Yeah. like she I think she wanted it more than anyone else did apparently, but like I've never heard anyone saying anything about it. Uh it has like 8 million views on YouTube which is like not that not amazing standards. Yeah. Like admittedly it's to my understanding a 27 minute short film advertising deluxe edition tracks for her album that came out a year beforehand. Yeah. like which is a which is a really neat sell. Yeah. And like the the full version had We Can't Be Friends and Yes. And which are both like actual hits and I don't think this one had any actual I mean we've heard a Twilight Zone uh you know it's been floating around the lower end of the Hot 100 and it's a very good song but like I haven't it hasn't seemed like much of a buzz. I think Lady Gaga had more buzz this year than Ariana has for, you know, music things at least. Joker 2, of course. I I don't know. Like I I I felt like my time was wasted. It very much was. And I'm glad I could waste your time. And yet we've talked for like an hour and a half about it. How did we do this? How did it happen? I thought this was going to be like a five minute discussion. It was bad. See you next episode. I I think one of the weirdest things about the ending of the show is I don't know what I expected it to end with. But I guess the fact that I didn't expect Ariana to win and then the credits just rolled. It reminded me a lot of watching the Oscars in 2021 where they moved best actor to the very end. Yeah. And then Anthony Hopkins won and they just rolled the credits because he wasn't there. And I was just like, "Oh, what the [ __ ] was that? I guess we're just done now. I guess we just leave." Yeah. There's no showstopping thing. It was just done. Yeah. Usually the MTV awards end with someone playing us out and it's usually you know someone they say for the end it doesn't really matter but it used they at least try to end with something and they did not do that this year. No, there wasn't even like a skit. It was just that's it. Culture just was like thanks for watching. Why do we uh keep vlogging this Lena? Do you remember why we started doing this? Do I remember why we started doing it? It just seemed like a good idea at the time because this was a thing that we could Are you asking the serious question? Because the answer is we didn't want to put every episode of the show on YouTube, but we figured we could do the awards and that and that would throw people and be like, "Oh, right. There's a podcast that Todd does with an extremely annoying person. Maybe I'll check that out." And now we've just been stuck doing it every year since. Yes. Perhaps this will be the last year. I don't think so, but who can say? I don't know. Like, I think we need to start seriously considering it because it's not even the MTV of Video Music Awards anymore. I saw it on CBS. This was such This was such a strange year and it does feel very much like I don't know, kind of in keeping with 2025. It was certainly a very show. Yeah. Anyway, well, thank you for suffering with us, Emily. Yeah. I think the question is, how did I get wrapped into this? Y'all have done this for like 15 years. Y'all have like a reason. This is my second year in a row and I'm just like, "Yeah, I guess this is what I do now. I guess I'm here." You You were the only one I moved out of the country for this. You thought you were safe. I thought I would be safe. You were at a point in your life where you have three spare hours on a Sunday night. Eventually, you will uh you know have other things to do when you're going to turn us down. Well, good night everybody. Good night. Good night.