Saturday night, Spike TV and Viacom attempted to fix everything that was wrong with the annual VGAs with the help of a rebranding and a three-hour long streaming event. The new VGX model may have succeeded in providing more in-depth coverage for the core gaming community, but not without a few moments of unscripted awkwardness. All right, maybe it was more than just a few moments…
In the pauses between announcing the evening’s big winners, interviewing creators, and revealing world premieres of next-gen gameplay footage; co-hosts Joel McHale (The Soup) and Geoff Keighley (GameTrailers TV) demonstrated an amazing example of awkward on-screen chemistry. Many of McHale’s jokes fell flat on their own, but even when he did land a clever quip the Community star didn’t get much help from straight man Keighley. McHale’s attempts to tease Keighley (particularly about his excitement over the Titanfall footage) or talk of diapers led to painful interactions that are surprisingly hard to watch.
Prepare to experience some off the charts awkwardness, people. Like The Office (UK) or Curb your Enthusiasm kind of awkward… but not in a good way. If you’re anything like us, you may even need to look away at some points…
