These Bizarre Pics from the Dystopian MTV VMAs Are Proof 2020 Is Super Weird

Okay, it’s officially the darkest timeline.

Do you think in stories about terrifying futures, like The Hunger Games or Mad Max, the characters ever turned to one another and said, 'Huh, I think we live in a dystopia now'?

This year has definitely threatened to tip our reality into Children of Men territory. Indeed, if you travelled back just five years and tried to tell your past-self that President Donald Trump is stoking racial tensions while the world reels from a global pandemic, you’d probably be stopped and asked to explain, "President Who?!" before even getting to the rest.

But if there is indeed a moment where we can acknowledge a transition from 'normal past' to 'future hellscape', I believe it is this: Doja Cat in a greenscreen void accepting Best New Artist at the socially distanced VMAs. (Good luck explaining that string of words to past-you too.)

_{Image: Frazer Harrison via Getty Images}

The MTV Video Music Awards still went down this year in New York City, despite COVID-19 ravaging the US and social-distancing restrictions halting most live performances and events. As a compromise, MTV put on a series of mostly-crowd-free performances and had winners accept their prizes over video or in isolation at the New York studio, filmed in advance over the past few days. There was also a prize for Best Quarantine Performance. This is our life.

Today's airing of the VMAs yielded a series of images that, without context (and even with context), suggest we now live in the kind of world previously only imagined in movies like Robocop and Blade Runner. This now includes the sight of the Black Eyed Peas in cowboy hats with flashing crotches singing to no one. As Will. I. Am opined, "We're living in a crazy world." Sure looks like it.

_{Image: Kevin Winter/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

So, without much further ado, behold, our new reality.

_{Bella Hadid.}_{Image: Jeff Kravitz/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

_CNCO._{Image: Jeff Kravitz/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

_{Lady Gaga.}_{Image: Kevin Winter/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

_{Keke Palmer. Image: Jeff Kravitz/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

_{DaBaby and Jabbawockeez.}_{Image: Kevin Winter/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

_{Maluma. Image: Jeff Kravitz/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages}

_{Miley Cyrus. Images: Vijat Mohindra/MTV VMAs 2020 via GettyImages.}

Okay, that's enough for now, because how much can one possibly take?

In case you were wondering, Lady Gaga won Artist of the Year and The Weeknd won Best Music Video for "Blinding Lights", but who can even think about that right now when we have profound messages like this one from attendee (?) Travis Barker to untangle?