MTV Movie Awards
We all know about the nearly three-decade legacy of MTV's Video Music Awards, which singlehandedly instilled a serious cool factor into the tired old format of conventional awards shows.
Sandra Bullock.But as it happens, that institution's sister broadcast, the MTV Movie Awards, this year hosted by Jason Sudeikis, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and it will air its usual star- and shenanigans-studded two hours on Sunday, June 5, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV. Over the past two decades, the network's Movie Awards shows have been remembered less for their actual winners (the categories and nominees have historically been, and continue to be, on the fun and frivolous side) than their elaborate parodies of the year's top films, bizarro acceptance speeches and smattering of groundbreaking live performances.
Below, we look back at 10 moments that, when relived in succession, make the case for the MTV Movie Awards' spot in the annals of classic cable television.
Jim Carrey
Sandra Bullock isn't alone in having used the Movie Awards as a platform to get some things off her chest. After getting snubbed by the Motion Picture Academy, who denied Jim Carrey an Oscar nomination for "The Truman Show more," the former "In Living Color" vet took out his frustrations in appropriately comedic fashion on that year's Movie Awards. Upon scoring the golden popcorn for Best Male Performance, Carrey accepted his honor bedecked in full stoner attire, complete with long hair and a flowing beard. Without breaking character, even as he left the stage, Carrey warbled the lyrics to Eric Clapton's "Let It Grow," lambasted MTV for not playing enough Foghat and flirted with audience member Courtney Love while graphically flattering the female attendees on hand. It was a hilarious comedic triumph, but also a teaser of methodic ways to come for his next film, the Andy Kaufman tribute "Man on the Moon."
Fast-forward a decade from Jim Carrey's MTV Movie Awards heyday, and Sacha Baron Cohen was the show's new crown jester. But a stunt intended to promote the release of "Bruno" still gets debated today, and from the looks of it at the time,
... morenearly got the provocative comic/actor assaulted by hip-hop's most volatile MC, Eminem. Wardrobed like a sexy cupid, Cohen/Bruno descended awkwardly from the ceiling on a wire, landing with his bare behind directly in Em's face. The rapper was caught muttering several angry epithets before he and his entourage stormed off in apparent disgust. Given Mr. Mathers' history of inciting controversy with perceived homophobic lyrical content, it was hard to discern whether he was in on the gag, or simply gagging, but Em himself later confessed to the whole thing being planned and rehearsed. Or maybe he was just, er, saving face.
Ben Stiller and Tom Cruise Make Laughter Their 'Mission' (2000)
In MTV Movie Awards history, no actor has proved more game from year to year for overall outlandishness than Ben Stiller. And in 2000, he offered his finest send-up yet, playing a Tom Cruise stuntman/creepy
... moreimpersonator named Tom Crooz alongside the real-life man himself and director John Woo on the set of "Mission: Impossible II." Stiller's dead-on cocky smile and "ain't I great" mannerisms still induce belly laughs, as does the underlying joke that his character is both an asset to Cruise and an unstable hanger-on. But what makes this bit hold up, and seem almost ironically prescient, is the knowledge that a few short years later, Tom-Tom would start behaving in ways that made people genuinely question his sanity.
Jack Black Gives Spider-Man Performance That Doesn't Bite (2002)
Nine years ago, actor/musician/funnyman Jack Black was still a budding superstar with one foot in the raunchy juvenilia of his original Tenacious D act. No surprise, then, that in his interpretation of the "Spider-Man
... more" legend, everyone's favorite crime-fighting arachnid says things like, "My hands, they're hairy and sticky -- no change there" after metamorphosis, sketches iterations of his costume until it's "exactly the right amount of gay," and colors the face of Yoda around his lips when it's time for that famous upside-down kiss with co-host Sarah Michelle Gellar. Black carries the parody for both he and the outgunned Gellar, and makes you wonder if Sam Raimi should have considered rebooting the franchise as a debauched teen comedy to begin with.
Alt-Rock Gods Pay Tribute to the Ultimate Pop Legends (1994)
Jack Black wasn't the only alterna-rock acolyte to stand out at the ceremony over the years. Way back in 1994, Dave Grohl joined Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli (pictured), R.E.M.'s Mike Mills
... moreand Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner under the guise of the Backbeat Band, who provided the soundtrack for the Beatles-inspired film "Backbeat" and made a singular live appearance at that June's Movie Awards. The supergroup blasted through a fiery run of "Money" and "Long Tall Sally." But their performance sparked with extra resonance, as the show was taped only a few months in the wake of Kurt Cobain's suicide.
Amy Winehouse Lives Up to Her Onstage and Offstage Reputations (2007)
U.K. soul revivalist Amy Winehouse experienced a year like few young musicians do in their careers circa 2007, which makes it easier to understand that the troubled diva saw her participation in the Movie
... moreAwards as an opportunity for some reckless fun. Much to producers' dismay, Winehouse jetted to Vegas the day prior to the show, only to return spontaneously within a hair of her scheduled rendition of "Rehab." A performance which, incidentally, was worth all the anxiety and still rivals any of its kind from other MTV Movie Awards or even Video Music Awards broadcasts.
Gnarls Barkley Use the Force to Get 'Crazy' (2006)
By now, mainstream music fans are accustomed to the eccentric style of Atlanta singer/rapper/songwriter Cee Lo Green, but five years ago, the sight of him and Gnarls Barkley cohort Danger Mouse outfitted as Darth Vader and
... moreObi-Wan Kenobi, respectively, while performing their hit "Crazy" was anything but ordinary. Never mind the backing band, who were in full stormtrooper regalia, or the poor drummer, who got stuck with the full-body Chewbacca attire. But despite all their quirk, Cee Lo and Danger Mouse's Movie Awards moment still lingers because "Crazy" just happens to be one of the past decade's finest pop songs.
Sarah Silverman Adds Insult to Paris Hilton's Legal Injury (2007)
There might be no more priceless footage in Movie Awards annals than the look of cryptic humorlessness on Paris Hilton's face after that year's host, Sarah Silverman, unleashed a string of punch lines at the
... more heiress's expense mere hours before Hilton was due to begin her prison term. We're a family website, but we can say that Silverman's lowest blow insinuated that Paris would be right at home in jail, because her cell-door bars would double as phalluses. Yikes. In retrospect, it's hard to sympathize too much with Hilton, who was paying a relatively minor price for her persistent legal transgressions, and it's simply too much vicarious fun to watch audience member Jack Nicholson flash his Cheshire grin in approval of all the innuendo.
