MTV Movie Awards

Oh the MTV Movie Awards, were art thou ever cool?  I seem to remember back in my youth they were kind of neat, even a tad bit relevant in sorting out prizes in pop culture deemed too risque or cool or hip for the old-hat Academy.  Well, years of pandering to the Twilight crowd, and shilling endless airtime to the next wannabe blockbuster and the infuriating "the movies you've seen" plea made in the ubiquitous advertisements have all kind of killed that I assume.  The strangeness comes in the winners-- a scattered checklist of "hip" things.  Marvel's The Avengers was king (not a surprise for the biggest box office champ of last year), but Silver Linings Playbook cleaned up too, an odd fit...no?

MOVIE OF THE YEAR: Marvel's The Avengers
BEST MALE PERFORMANCE: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Rebel Wilson, Pitch Perfect 
BEST ON-SCREEN DUO: Mark Wahlberg & Seth MacFarlane, Ted
BEST SCARED AS S**T PERFORMANCE: Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi
BEST SHIRTLESS PERFORMANCE: Taylor Lautner, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
BEST KISS: Bradley Cooper & Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
BEST FIGHT: The Avengers vs. Loki, Marvel's The Avengers
BEST VILLAIN: Tom Hiddleston, Marvel's The Avengers
BEST MUSICAL MOMENT: Pitch Perfect- The Bellas
BEST HERO: Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
BEST WTF MOMENT: Django Unchained- Jamie Foxx & Samuel L. Jackson
--In an excruciating sequence, Foxx's Django blasts servile head-servant Stephen, played by Jackson, and sets the Candieland mansion ablaze with the strike of a match

GENERATION AWARD: Jamie Foxx
TRAILBLAZER AWARD: Emma Watson
COMEDIC GENIUS: Will Ferrell

A tip of the hat to the Best Shirtless Performance winner in Taylor Lautner, who showed up on the stage with a padded belly exclaiming that his recent legality has produced a lot of drinking, and that this award was his Oscar.  Totally staged, and the line readings were a bit flat, but the first sign of a sense of humor in the young actor makes this speech his single best performance to date.  Surprising that this was the only win of the night for The Twilight Saga's swan song.  Stranger so was that he managed to beat stiff shirtless competition from the likes of Channing Tatum and Daniel Craig.  Seriously, how could one have resisted the beefcake display of Magic Mike?!?!?