Featured Image Credit: MTV
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, MTV
Katherine Sidnell
Awards season may be nearly over, but a clip from the 2003 MTV VMAs has just resurfaced, and fans are shocked by how poorly it has aged.
It may only be from twenty years ago, but fans were baffled over how many offensive references were made in a clip that is less than 30 seconds long.
Most people will remember the 2003 as the year of Madonna and Britney’s iconic kiss on stage.
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It came during their performance of classic Madonna hits such as 'Like A Virgin' and 'Hollywood', as viewers looked on in shock.
While their kiss would hardly be controversial today, it made headlines around the world as the pair locked lips on stage in front of Missy Elliott and Christina Aguilera.
Meanwhile, the offensive jokes in the resurfaced clip went largely unnoticed, until now.
Used as a segway to another award, fans see veteran comedian Chris Rock take to the stage and announce the appearance of fellow comic David Spade and the Olsen twins.
Wearing a Matrix-style jacket, he tells the audience, 'well, they’re barely legal and he’s got a subscription to barely legal’ as he welcomes them to the stage.
The Olsen twins’ pained expressions show how badly the joke misfired, but what’s worse is the song they walk on stage to - The Black Eyed Peas’ 'Let’s Get Ret***ded'.
Yes, you read that right.
The 2003 track is the OG version of 'Let's Get it Started', released on the group's third studio album, Elephunk.
Understandably, the track caused huge offence upon its release and has subsequently been removed from digital and streaming platforms, with the new lyrics quietly swapped in.
But this didn’t stop producers at the time from using the track, much to the shock of modern audiences.
After seeing the clip on Twitter, many fans shared their shock about the song in a lengthy thread with one writing: “… the song genuinely doesn’t even flow that good when those are the lyrics honestly.”
Many agreed, with another writing about how frequently the word was used back in the late nineties and early noughties.
They wrote: “Man, the word was used so loosely back then. You hardly hear it now”
The clip now has over 761,000 views on the platform and many fans have also jumped to David Spade’s defence - kind of - saying he 'didn't do anything bad in particular'.
One fan angrily added: “david spade didn’t do anything bad in particular he’s just the cherry on top of everything about this.”