For the discussion of lost media, and the searches for them. Banner by u/AgentPeggyCarter
“MTV2’s Most Controversial Music Videos” is the name of the special. ——— -I can confirm it aired in 2002, probably April from what I’ve seen
This confirms it was April 16th 2002
This special was in conjunction with another special regular mtv aired earlier that day where they discussed the videos
That night MTV2 aired all the music videos discussed uncensored, with the above title.
This special was hosted by someone , can’t remember who. UPDATE- people have confirmed that Andrew WK hosted it
But each video came with a bumper and little symbols to explain why it was controversial.
here is a forum I found of someone talking about a re-airing of the special
I have heard the number of videos ranged from 20-25. It aired late at night on MTV2 and was a few hours long
Some of the music videos are from Madonna “what it’s like for a girl” NIN “Closer” Neil Young “this notes for you”
We can confirm the number one spot was “smack my b**** up by Prodigy
EDIT- Thank you for being so nice everyone. I wasn’t expecting anyone to upvote this or comment much. I was scared cause this was my first Lost Media post. Just wanted to say I appreciate it.
Subreddit news and announcements
Hello everyone, this is just a quick and short message to let everyone know about subreddit news and announcements:
We are looking for new mods. If you think you meet the requirements and would like to help out the subreddit, then we would love for you to apply and look forward to all applications.
The new subreddit rules are up, we have also made a new wiki to address the issue of what lost media is exactly.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
I remember seeing this and I’m almost certain of two things: Andrew WK hosted and the top most controversial video was Smack My Bitch Up by Prodigy.
Edit: fixed stuff
Can confirm about the first place.
Can also confirm this. Some other songs were NIN closer. Madonna “What it’s like for a girl” “Rabbit in your headlights” by UNCLe
I have a lot of this, wasn't aware it was lost. Can confirm it was hosted by the original Andrew WK. Quality is not the best as MTV2 didn't come in the clearest but I definitely have a substantial chunk of it on a VHS tape that I'll look for next time I'm in my archives.
One video that I watched in the live broadcast but missed recording was the uncut Bloodhound Gang "Bad Touch" video with the spitting poop ending. Has that ever resurfaced anywhere?
Off the top of my head it contained Madonna's "What It's Like For a Girl" with the full license plate and car crash and the original George Michael "I Want Your Sex" as well as the first full MTV-related broadcast ever of Neil Young's "This Note's For You."
But yeah, next time I'm in my archives I'll try to grab what I can of this.
Yes, the original video for The Bad Touch with the spitting poop ending is on YouTube, on the Bloodhound Gang’s channel. So that one’s not lost.
Glad to hear it! I remember looking for it around 2008 or so and the "Director's cut" I could find just included the otherwise-cut monkey sex from the beginning of the widely distributed version.
Yeah :) That’s interesting, the Explicit version as it is called on the video, it has been up for at least a decade on their official YouTube channel with 31 million views xD Ah, well I guess you now know. But they do have both versions of the video on their channel, the original is labelled as Explicit, while the edited one is labelled the Official Video.
Awesome. I'd recommend ripping it with the commercials included if you can.
Do you have other stuff archived and posted? I'm interested in what else you might have.
So, my contributions to the Lost Media world are usually things I've found and then sent directly to already established/known accounts or things I've tape-traded over the years that eventually made their way into the warm arms of internet preservation.
The version of the Weinerville Chaunkah Special that's in circulation from its premiere with the original commercials I'm 98% sure is mine from when I'd trade it circa 2003 on VHS as part of the wrestling tape trading community (Kevin "Diesel" Nash appears in it). I say 98% sure because there is a 2% chance that someone else from my neighborhood with hyper-localized ads also recorded it and shared it, but that's highly unlikely.
Otherwise, I was always a big "tape everything" kid/teen and I have a VHS-DVD converter where I still have about three Rubbermaids of VHS tapes to make my way through. I'm not sure what exactly I still have, as my MTV stuff is from 98-02 the rare window they recycled a lot of 80s and early 90s content because of how famous their early stars were getting, but I have a lot.
Last time I really went through my MTV stuff was when I made a DVD mixtape for my then girlfriend in 2011 that features clips and segments from a bunch of 98-99 MTV shows like Video Cliches, Making the Video, Re-Making the Video (the stunt show, I believe that's what it was called), stuff like Spring Break and Winter Break and countdown clips like the most Buzzworthy videos of all time or the Top 100 videos of all time. I don't know exactly what I still have, just that I have a lot. Some is probably super common like Celebrity Deathmatch and Real World episodes. But I would tape TRL premieres and artists' album release specials quite a bit too.
Otherwise, I was a writer for Village Voice / LA Weekly / Complex for a number of years and am right now an on-air host for The Current, so my personal YouTube page is a bunch of clips from interviews and things asking artists / actors / filmmakers / athletes about these sorts of obscure pieces of media - https://www.youtube.com/chazkangasraps
Unrelated to this post but I'm interested in any TRL stuff you have. I've been trying to archive what I can.
Cool, I'll keep you posted. I always tried to tape video premieres and when artists I liked did performances and interviews.
Second the commercial idea! If you got it
It's been over a decade since I watched it and I'm not sure if this was something I hit pause when it went to commercials to conserve the end of the tape and catch as much of it as possible (which normally I didn't do but this felt like a one time only event and I didn't want to miss something) but if any commercials are on it I'll keep those intact.
Nice.
Here is the explicit version of The Bad Touch and some cool facts about that music video:
The Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch (Explicit)
The original uncensored video (that was then censored by MTV after receiving complaints) contained two additional scenes that included two french men dressed as sailors, eating french fries and then getting beat up with baguettes by the band a way different ending to the original video.
In a statement by MTV ‘’After reviewing the video again internally, there were some images we didn’t feel comfortable with and asked the record label to make some edits. The record company edited the video, and it is currently in regular rotation on MTV’’.
MTV had to cut a particular scene (that is present in the uncensored version) after receiving complaints by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation (GLAD). They objected to the scene and stated that a ‘’gay bashing scene in any context in today’s climate is not acceptable’’. The scene in question included two french men dressed as sailors, eating french fries at a restaurant and then being interrupted by the band who beat them up with baguettes. Geffen Records complied and made changes/edited the video to remove that scene and then the video went back on regular rotation on MTV.
The owners of Drive-Thru Records directed this music video : they also directed the videos for ‘’I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get Chicks’’ and ‘’Your Only Friends Are Make Believe’’.
Thank you so much! So do I just look back here for it when you upload it? No rush on it, just new to LostMedia Reddit
I'll def follow-up here. It will not be particularly soon as my father recently passed away and I have a lot of things of that nature to sort through, but when I get a chance I'll probably send the file directly to an already established lost media account on YouTube or Archive dot Org to upload it so it can pop up on the most radars.
100 percent watched this when it was aired. No clue it was lost but then again I never looked for it.
Really wish I could find it 🙁
This sounds vaguely familiar. I think a lot of MTV / MTV2 content from around this time is lost. My personal wish list from this time is the show High School Stories: Scandals, Pranks, and Controversies
Man I used to watch high school stories all the time as a kid
Me too! It's amazing when once popular media from childhood gets lost.
I have added some links that confirm this existed
I have searched all over YouTube DailyMotion and the Internet Archives
I found a 12 minute clip specifically of Andrew W.K.'s hosting moments on this archive of Andrew W.K. clips: https://www.awkshare.com/files/e6cd8bcb-ff34-4563-b6cf-43610f54a422
It doesn't include any of the music videos, but lots of great tidbits about the music videos that were in the special and why they were controversial. Hope it helps!!
ETA: Uploaded to YouTube: https://youtu.be/wctDmOsQe_U
Notes I took from the video: It likely doesn’t contain every clip of Andrew W.K.; the next clips don’t always make sense with the music video that was mentioned previously, and music videos are mentioned that we didn’t see intros for (ex: Fiona Apple - Criminal).
Included intros to music videos + “This video contains”:
Britney Spears - Baby One More Time (“Objectification of young girls”)
The Bloodhound Gang - Bad Touch (“Homophobia”)
Madonna - What It Feels Like For A Girl (“Violence”)
D12 ft Eminem - Purple Hills (“Drugs”)
Michael Jackson - Black or White (2nd half) (“Creepy”)
Warrant - Cherry Pie (“Objectification of Women”)
Pearl Jam - Jeremy (“Suicide”)
Eminem - Stan (“Suicide”)
NAS ft Puff Daddy - Hate Me Now (“Religious Imagery”)
Nine Inch Nails - Closer (“S&M”)
George Michael - I Want Your Sex (“Lyrics”)
Madonna - Justify My Love (“S&M”)
Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up (“Drugs”)
Bonus Videos (not on the countdown, but included in the special):
Aphex Twin - Window Licker (“Gross Out”)
UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke - Rabbit In Your Headlights (“Violence”)
Metallica - Turn The Page (“Violence”)
Bjork - Pagan Poetry (“Gross Out”)
I saw this broadcast on MTV2, and they gave "Smack My Bitch Up" every offensive content description the program used except homophobia!
Ooh, thanks for that! I watched it again and I missed the first time that it flashed both Drugs and Violence up for a second. The rest must have been cut.
Thanks for this! I think there's a chance that this might be every one as I don't think every video had intros. Will try to see if the missing ones are on my copy when I take a look. Thanks again!
https://youtu.be/ZxDqInhQkfk
Found those Andrew WK clips already uploaded back in 2019 it seems
I saw this when it aired, it was pretty interesting at the time, but didn't feature anything that I hadn't seen before. Most of the really controversial videos were regularly traded on SoulSeek and other p2p file sharing services.
I didn't have cable, and around the early 2000s MTV2 started airing on regular television. The most interesting part about the program was seeing uncensored content on TV like that. 20 - 25 videos seems like a bit much from my memory, it was maybe an hour long program at most, and I do believe there were commercial breaks, but I could be wrong about that.
There was a one hour special hosted by Suchin Pak with just brief clips of the controversial deleted moments, man-on-the-street reactions and a history of the controversies - and then after midnight ET Andrew WK hosted a block the all the videos airing uncut (except for Nas' "Hate Me Now," which I thought I just blinked and missed Puffy being crucified, but no the version with Puff being crucified only aired once in its original airing and that finally leaked last December).
The one hour special was in rotation on MTV itself, but the uncut block only aired on MTV2.
I believe it was close to 3 hours, i know you can prob find all the videos online, but it would just be cool to watch with the bumpers and host and such
I vividly remember watching this but I couldn't tell you more than what we've already established.
Sorry to make another comment, don't want my other one to get too cluttered, lol -
I also found this portfolio from someone that appears to have done a lot of show packages for MTV around that time. They have one from the main MTV channel - I'm guessing it's the one that was done in conjunction with the MTV2 one, but it looks really similar, so I would guess they did the MTV2 ones as well.
https://assafdovcohen.com/archive/
https://assafdovcohen.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ezgif.com-optimize-56.gif
That's awesome and I really dig their other work on there. In particular, the alternate logos for the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards are truly inspired!
yeah, it was super cool to look through!!
I remember finding a rip of The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up" from this special, I think I might have it on my trusty HDD
vimeo had it up 7 years ago, this was the one?
Definitely remember finding it on dailymotion, but that's the one I got saved on my HDD
I had to create an account just to say I was quite literally watching this special not even an hour ago. It happened to be the tape I grabbed to check if my vcr still worked so I didn't sit and watch the whole thing, but it is all there uncut and including commercials. Some other vids shown were Fiona Apple's Criminal, Michael Jackson's Black or White, Warrant's Cherry Pie, Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back, and Aerosmith's Livin' on the Edge. Commercials I saw included Street Fighter 3 Alpha on GBA, a mail-order ad for the Scorpion King soundtrack, a Dell ad with the Dell dude, and ITT Tech. I have no way to transfer it to digital though, unfortunately.
Sorry just now responding to this. Damn… if you happen to be able to upload it, please post the link!