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Tyler the Creator and other mysteries of MTV’s VMA

This year's Video Music Awards made Twitter quiver with confusion, from Beyoncé's baby-to-be to Tyler the Creator's headscratching win.

 

Jordan Valinsky

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Posted on Aug 29, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 3:06 am CDT

The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards finished up late Sunday night in Los Angeles, and Twitter proved itself once again to be a snarky seatmate during award shows. The microblogging network blew up with praise, condemnation, and, more often than not, pure confusion on what was going on at the VMAs.

The four things that tweaked our tweets the most:

1. Beyonce is pregnant! The buzz started early when the diva announced she was expecting on the VMA preshow. “BEYONCE IS PREGNANT” was still trending nearly four hours after the announcement. EllelucilleAl tweeted, “Beyonce is pregnant. How cute!”

What’s not so cute: the future baby’s instant parody account, @BeyJayFetus. The account doesn’t quite hit the right note—Family Guy’s @Stewie might be a better model for funny baby talk—but nonetheless has nearly 900 followers (and growing).

2. Lady Gaga does something weird! Last year it was the meat dress. This year its greaser Gaga. Lady Gaga dressed up as her alter ego, Jo Calderone, to sing new song “Yoü and I.”

“Gaga’s drag performance of “Yoü and I” is as useless as that umlaut,” tweeted @LouisPeitzman.

Gaga’s antics are growing tired to some, including @0Brenna0 who tweeted, “It was interesting at first but it got old fast!”

3. Chris Brown flies! In what MTV billed it as the “dance-off of his career,” Chris Brown danced, jigged, and flew across the stage in a dance-off against … himself. @madison_rigdon tweeted “Chris Brown rocked it tonight!” while @mattMcGhee echoed the same thought, tweeting that “Chris Brown had the best performance of the night. Period.”

4. Tyler the Creator wins! Wait, who? Rapper Tyler the Creator won MTV’s “Best New Artist” and the Internet was very confused.

So! Tyler, who loves creating controversy, took to the stage in a bleep-worthy acceptance speech that appalled everyone and their mother.

Tyler’s win spawned a hashtag, #tylerthecreator. A search of his name reveals tweets like this: “but seriously who the hell is Tyler the creator??”, as @Grant_Barker tweeted.

Check out the “Who is Tyler the Creator?” Tumblr for a collection of the most confused tweets.

Editor’s note: Kreayshawn was robbed.

Image via MTV

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*First Published: Aug 29, 2011, 2:06 am CDT