There was the time Ving Rhames gave his award to a perplexed looking Jack Lemmon:

There was Diana Ross fondling Lil Kim’s exposed boob:

Then, of course, the Ego of Egos could not be peaceful observer last night at the VMAs. Kanye West, whether you love him or hate him, filled with that “Can’t Act Right” juice from the bottle he carried on the red carpet, had to and upstage a young seventeen year old girl who had never won an MTV anything before by inappropriately confiscating her mic, jacking off to mortified Beyonce, and then being asked to leave by a producer only to to issue a temp blog apology to little Taylor Swift afterwards.

Kanye has been the upshower of most events since his arrival on the scene.  Somewhere, probably in Bad Boy Records school, people were teaching kids off the street that you had to be a dog get what you wanted (I mean that in the Rough Ryders - DMX sense) and then word spread to the kids after the Bad Boy generation thus some of the arrogants we have walking around today. Listen up kids, here’s the part they didn’t tell you about. There is a time to slow it down. After you can live off of your record earnings (not your advances, trust), are confident that you are a one hit wonder or a sophmore slumper, that you work harder in the studio than you do on people’s nerves, you’re allowed to pull back the ego. Look at Jay Z. Whether you get him or not, he would probably wear a dress before he jumped on stage to steal thunder from a child.  There comes a time when all your blogs in CAPS LOCK and your incoherent rantings about random things that mostly never concern you are going to not propel you any further than you are.  You even inspired Lil Mama to jump on stage with the astonishing idea that she belong right there next to Jay Z and Alicia Keys.  That was all you, Kanye.  It is time to love that little nerdy kid that didn’t get along with anyone in grade school before you go any further. Do it in tribute to your mom.  Do it so that you can heal yourself and see what other stratosphere your music can take you. Do it for whatever reason resonates. Because while Award Shows are about ego, there are not about disrespect. This is a circus, my friend, not improv theater. We can’t handle improv theater anymore because there’s a severe need of intelligence, thoughtfulness, creativity and respect. Specifically on the political stage right now (if I hear one more conservative “news” person say that most anti-Obama folks are just tired Americans, I might scream. You can’t be anymore tired than he is of being compared to Hitler, of seeing lynching pictures or of the racial slurs that are plastered on your posters, “tired Americans”…seriously). And while I know you’ve given your award to others before, you’ve stomped that action out by this one. You can’t apologize for being real when you did when nobody asked you.

That girl can’t her moment back but thankfully, Beyonce gave her another moment which is hopefully richer than the first would have been. But it didn’t have to be like that.  Give me the days of the Native American protestor, the Jack Palance push up, the Ving Rhames act of random kindness any day.