By Madison Dymond and Milan Polk ’16

Along with the end of summer that inevitably comes with August came the much anticipated MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). The night had a myriad of highlights, including:

• Kanye West’s announcing his presidential campaign for 2020 after a 13 minute acceptance speech
• Miley Cyrus embracing cultural appropriation to wear dreadlocks
• Nicki Minaj calling out Miley Cyrus
• Justin Bieber crying after his performance
• Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood”

And a plethora of other “fun” drama.

Overall, viewers seemed pleased with who won this year’s awards–at least in comparison to last year. Objectively, this year’s aesthetics and visual effects were superb. The bright colors created the “hip” feeling that teen-centered award shows strive for.

The show was the perfect mixture of awkward, offensive and obnoxious to create the ironic hilarity everyone expects from the VMAs. It was not exactly “quality television,” but it was fun to watch for those who enjoy laughing at pointless drama that is so petty and unnecessary, it makes one realize how trivial everything is. Last year, the VMAs were a bit more forgettable–besides Miley Cyrus’s twerking and Beyonce being her amazing self. This year was just a bit more memorable. If one wants to avoid their own problems by engrossing themselves in the melodramatic and ridiculous problems of others, the VMAs were a must see. There are highlights available on MTV’s website.

So let’s talk about Kanye. In comparison to past VMAs, it could have gone worse. He won the Vanguard award, and was encouraged onstage with a nod from Taylor Swift and a chant  of “Yeezus” by the affectionate crowd. He took it all in with a three minute silence before sharing his wisdom with the audience in a single word: “Bro.”

While most winners only spoke for a humbling two minutes, Kanye decided to speak for a good 13 minutes. His speech consisted of mostly the word “bro” and various analogies and seemingly irrelevant stories that just left everyone confused and uncomfortable. Oh, and of course he ended his speech with his announcement of his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election.

Then there was Miley. She wore dreadlocks, as if it was a new fashion statement, and repeatedly mentioned weed as if it was a revolution she started.

This was all much worse than last year, when she danced on Robin Thicke in a live version of his “respectful” song Blurred Lines. Hosting the VMAs made her think she could say as she pleased, even when she attempted to lovingly call Snoop Dogg a clearly offensive racist term. Thankfully, Nicki Minaj called Miley out on her disregard for others.

All in all, the VMAs had just the right amount of drama and trash to keep people entertained for one glorious night, and keep people talking about it for another week. And finally, “What’s good Miley?”