And The Award Goes to CHAOS: 13 Biggest WTF is Happening Awards Show Moments of All Time!
Awards season is just about at its close, and, oh, what an awards season it has been.
The Oscars this year will go down in infamy. Will Smith storming the stage to smack Chris Rock in the face is somehow ALREADY the most talked about awards show event of all time. However, that does not mean that it was the first awards show moment to make the WTF is happening markers in our mind.
WTF moments CERTAINLY have their EGOT. Those are the high stakes realities of live awards shows. If you are sitting in a room filled with beautiful and creative people, literally being awarded for their emotional vulnerability, in a competition style setting, where the overarching pressure on everything is act normal, look good, and do nothing memorable- some memorable things are going to happen.
Here are the thirteen most WTF is Happening awards show moments of all time.
1. The Slap
Sure, this moment is the freshest in our brains, but, honestly, it is likely already the most iconic. When Will Smith took the stage to slap Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's hair, the core temperature of the room, nay, the universe, changed. This is a slap that will be stinging for years to come.
2. Sasha Baron Cohen and Emminem
Will Smith is definitely not the first one to get up and angrily leave an awards show. Back at the 2009 MTV movie awards, Sasha Baron Cohen was flying through the air, dressed as an angel. He fell into the audience and ended up straddling Emminem's face. The rapper did not take it kindly. He and his friends hoisted Baron Cohen up in the air and, once he was again levitating on the wires, began pushing him back and forth. Emminem and his posse got up and angrily stormed out of the auditorium.
3. The Miguel Drop-Kick
The singer Miguel attempted to make an impressive jump from the main stage to a thrust protruding into the audience at the 2013 Billboard Music Awards. He leapt over the audience. Well, he ALMOST leapt over the audience. He instead came crashing down a bit too quickly, kicking two audience members in their faces. You could say his performance was a knock-out.
4. Moonlight Wins Best Picture
Reading can be hard. Well, at least it was the night that La La Land was announced as the winner of Best Picture at the 2017 Oscar Awards when the card IN FACT said Moonlight. Of all of these WTF awards show moments, the people caught up in this genuine mistake handled the situation with grace, kindness, and generosity. (Which is what helps make it possible to look back on this genuinely cringey moment and laugh!)
5. Kanye West Best Rap Album
Wouldn't you have been shocked if Kanye didn't make this list? The artist now going by Ye has had his fair share of WTF is Happening awards moments. In 2008 when he won Best Rap Album, the music started playing while he was giving his speech (the universal sign for wrap it up now). Instead, West then brought up his, at the time, recently deceased mother, and said, "It would be in good taste to stop the music then." AND THEY LISTENED. A wild time.
6. "Ima let you finish"
Of course Kanye would be on this list twice. This time, of course, is for the FOREVER talked about, WTF was he ACTUALLY doing interruption of Taylor Swift's 2009 acceptance speech. While I don't think I'm shocking anyone with the placement on the list, it would not have been right without it. It's interesting Kanye has made this list for both refusing to be cut off AND for doing the cutting off.
7. Beyonce Saves the Day
Even MORE iconic, however, (yes, this is a WTF in a GREAT way), is when Beyonce, after winning the award for Video of the Year, brought Taylor Swift back on stage to finish her speech. She said, "I remember being seventeen years old, up for my first MTV Award with Destiny's Child, and it was one of the most exciting moments in my life. So, I'd like for Taylor to come out and have her moment." All hail Queen Bey.
8. Adele Dazim
Lol...who? No one can quite be sure who John Travolta thought was coming to the stage to sing Let it Go at the 2014 Oscar Awards. He seemed alarmingly confident, however, that it was Adele Dazim, which is interesting for two reasons. Reason one: "Idina Menzel" is nowhere NEAR close to "Adele Dazim." Reason two: Who is Adele Dazim? Iconic.
9. The Public Diss
This WTF moment was a big in the 90s East Coast - West Coast fight. While the fight had remained unspoken, Suge Knight was the first to put clear words to it when he took the stage at the 1995 Source Awards. He publicly dissed Puff Daddy and revved up even more animosity between the two. This is seen by many as really kick-starting the fighting between the two sides.
10. "Miley, what's good?"
Now, this moment between Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus at the 2015 MTV Awards is definitely a WTF staple. As Nicki was up, accepting her award, she turned her speech towards Cyrus saying, "And now, back to this b**** that had a lot to say about me the other day in the press, Miley, what's good?" The former Disney star handled the moment beautifully saying, "We're all in this industry. We all do interviews, and we all know how they manipulate s***. Nicki, congrata-f******-lations." That was handled with CLASS.
11. "Wu Tang is for the Children"
Before Kanye told Taylor he was going to let her finish, we got, "Wu Tang is for the children." At the 1998 Grammys, Ol Dirty Bastard Kanyed before Kanye did, jumping on the stage and grabbing the microphone when Sunny Came Home was announced as Song of the Year instead of the Wu Tang Clan. He jumped on the mic and memorably declared, "Wu Tang is for the children," followed shortly after by, "Wu Tang is the best."
12. Getting Intimate
Who could forget this Britney Spears-Madonna-Christina Aguilera kiss from the 2003 MTV Awards? No words to this moment between three of the MOST star-power-filled iconic ladies justice, so you are just going to have to watch the video.
13. Wait...Who Was There?
At the 2009 VMAs, Alicia Keys was performing Empire State of Mind with Jay-Z when Lil Mama crashed the stage. What's even more epically WTF than that? Alicia keys didn't even KNOW that it happened until she came off stage! She said she was so focused on her performance that she didn't realize anything out of the ordinary had happened until Jay-Z came backstage with her and asked her about it.
So, while the last week has been filled with nothing but talk of the slap, we can be certain that there have been many WTF is Happening awards show moments in the past, and we are sure that there will be many more in the future.
