Back in high school, my close group of friends was pretty tight–maybe about 5 of us. But my looser group was a lot bigger, maybe about 25 guys. Whenever there was a party or something interesting going on, we would all call or page each other and make sure everyone would know about it, and usually roll together. There were lots of benefits to the bigger group: some of the guys had a way to get liquor for all of us, some didn’t really drink and could be the drivers, and there were a lot of us in the case someone got in a fight or whatever.
But there was a drawback to the big group: there were always one or two jackasses. Maybe they weren’t jackasses all the time, but once they had a few drinks, they inevitably ended up showing their true colors, embarrassing themselves and some of us in the meantime. And the next day at school, everyone was talking about them.
Yesterday, I didn’t watch the VMAs (again). I wasn’t avoiding it, I was hanging out with some friends, and forgot to tune in. But avoiding the show is nearly impossible. Because, like my high school friends, people can’t help but talk about the jackasses:
@itsthereal: “Whoever said the VMAs were broke? Cause it always seems fixed.”
@phoenixlp: “#VMAconclusion: not everyone has mastered what “amazing” and “incredible” mean.”
@joncaramanica: “choreography by Criss Angel”
@PigsAndPlans: “Ugh, Wayne. What are you doing with your life?”
@iancr: “I wish I could dig wayne but I’m too old and have loved hip hop for way too long. I tried. Hard.”
@JensenClan88: “That was like if I smashed my Guitar Hero guitar after I scored a 32% on Easy #VMAs”
and my favorite:
@brokemogul “you look stupid”
By now, most of us have heard about Adam Levine’s tweet (“the VMA’s. one day a year when MTV pretends to still care about music. I’m drawing a line in the sand. fuck you VMA’s.”) All respect due, but c’mon dude. MTV isn’t really pretending at all. They (the flagship channel at least) haven’t been pretending to be about music for a long time, and the VMA’s have really never been about giving awards away for real musicianship, talent, and songs. They’re just the big drunk trainwreck at the party: you can’t believe what you’re watching, and love to talk about it when it’s over.
