Britney steals spotlight at 2008 MTV Video Music Awards

Coming off of not-so-great ratings and reviews in 2007, the MTV Video Music Awards had much to prove for 2008.

In its 25th year, the ceremony kicked off the night with the annual pre-show that consisted of dancers, interviews with celebrities and pictures on the red carpet. Most artists showed up in the usual form of transportation, but some showed up wanting nothing more than to show up. Best New Artist nominees Tokio Hotel showed up in a monster truck with their faces plastered on the side and music blasting, which may not be the humblest of entrances, but it surely grabbed the attention of viewers.

T-Pain arrived on an elephant accompanied by typical circus acts in a disgusting self-promotion attempt for his upcoming release 3 Rings. Katy Perry (who kissed a girl and liked it) showed up in a black limo with Wal-Mart's sweetheart Miley Cyrus. I guess we are supposed to think they are the new "it" couple and should go out and buy Katy Perry's CD. We can do that, however, when no one has heard of you and wonders what you are doing at such an event, then it must be necessary.

The actual show did not go as planned. MTV picked sex addict and crude U.K. comic Russell Brand, of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" fame, to host the awards. He constantly made fun of the Jonas Brothers for staying pure and wearing purity rings showing their commitment to God. The crowd reacted only mildly to his first attempt at the recurring joke, but Brand continued to poke fun at the brothers until he lost the crowd altogether. Fellow promise ring-wearer Jordin Sparks replied to his comments by saying that the bands are okay because "not every guy or girl wants to be a slut."

In a way, Brand committed career suicide with his hosting gig, not only by demoralizing one of the most popular groups in America, but by deciding to make fun of President George W. Bush. After telling the audience that in his country, citizens would not trust him with a pair of scissors, Brand proceeded to tell viewers who to vote for, which of course was Barack Obama. Last time we checked, that is the job of Americans.

Besides Brand's horrendous hosting abilities, we saw performances by the Jonas Brothers, Pink, Rihanna, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Paramore, Christina Aguilera and Kid Rock. It was amazing to see the amount of lip-syncing that went on.

Did they learn nothing from Ashlee Simpson's SNL catastrophe?

The worst lip-syncing award goes to Batgirl, or as most of you know her: Christina Aguilera. Her timing was so far off that she appeared to simply be repeating the word "watermelon" again and again.

After her performance, Kid Rock specifically commented that he would not be lip-syncing his music that night. The best performance of the night was that of the Jonas Brothers, whose stage antics included a movie set disappearing and a stage appearing with thousands of screaming tweens rushing around them.

Perhaps the highlight of the night went to Britney Spears, who took home three moon men after many years of leaving empty-handed. While some may look at them as pity awards (since all nominations and winners were decided by viewers), it definitely shows that the public does want to see Spears make a comeback and are behind her, even though her behavior has been questionable over the past year. Spears did look good on stage, appearing almost back to her former self. Maybe she is serious about a comeback.

This writer can be contacted at features@theeastcarolinian.com.