It’s been alleged that somewhere on Tumblr, the blog of MTV Awards comedy writer Scott Aukerman, is a confession that the Bruno/Eminem incident was “yes, staged. That’s all anyone wants to talk about, so let’s get it out of the way. They rehearsed it at dress and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show.”

Over and over the enacting of outrageous/uncomfortable/socially disruptive confrontation scenarios between GenY/late GenX entertainers. Over and over the moment-after suspicions that what we all just saw was staged. Over and over the confirmations arriving a day or two later that we saw was indeed rehearsed and staged.

So for GenY/late GenX comedic entertainers, the enacting of outrageous/uncomfortable/socially disruptive confrontation scenarios is not just a signature thing. It reps a shift in the zetigeist, a movement, “comedy as art.” Putting people on in a somewhat dry and unrevealing manner is all they do in front of audiences — it’s pretty much the whole conceptual magilla with not that much else in the bag. Whatever you think may actually be happening isn’t happening — it’s theatre, bro. And we are going to keep doing this until you’re literally down on your knees and begging for mercy. Because what we do isn’t as much funny as it is fun to talk about afterwards over coffee.