Please Explain

As a general rule, I hate awards shows. I hate the glitz. I detest the glamour. And I boo the less than witty banter of the hosts.

But when I stumbled upon this photo from the recent MTV video music awards, I began to wonder if perhaps, just perhaps, I was missing something.

The women squashed like so many shameless hussies into the bottom of the above picture constitute the all-singing all-dancing "Pussy Cat Dolls," who in this shot had just won an award for doing the best bump-n-grind in a music video this year.

Now ordinarily, I would be somewhat perturbed by this whole situation, and would launch into some aimless rant about music these days, and why is it such rubbish, and what do the 17 other Pussy Cat Dolls do anyway. But instead, I found myself drawn to the blinding message MTV was sending to the world. A single word. The word which, so I hear, has been voted funniest common English word for three years running. PANTS!

Odd. Because I'd put money on the bet that the Pussy Cat Dolls were not wearing pants. They did not talk about pants. They didn't even thank "pants" for making this award possible. In fact, I bet they only infrequently think of pants in any meaningful way, if at all.

Yet there it was. Pants. Deep.