The MTV VMAs 2020 were fun, but could pre-records make awards shows predictable and sterile?

nme.com:

Jarvis Cocker waggling his arse on stage at the BRITs as Michael Jackson performed ‘Earth Song’ in 1996. Performance artist Michael Portnoy crashing Bob Dylan’s 1998 Grammys performance with “soy bomb” daubed across his bare chest in thick black marker.

Kanye West’s infamous “I’ma let you finish” moment during Taylor Swift’s VMAs speech in 2009 and then him almost jokingly pulling the same stunt on Beck at the Grammys in 2015.

These incidents aren’t always good, but you can’t deny they keep the schmoozy, back-slapping nature of these ceremonies interesting.Holding an awards show in the middle of a pandemic cuts the chances of any such events right down – everything is remote, there’s barely any audience and, in the case of the MTV VMAs.