YouTube Music Awards: Spike Jonze, ‘I think we’re done’

Nothing summed up the tumult and chaos of the inaugural YouTube Music Awards like webcast director Spike Jonze’s final words to host Jason Schwartzman after 88 minutes of unscripted freakiness.

“I think we’re done,” said an exhausted-looking Jonze, having just shimmied out of the strange white protective spacesuit-looking thing he was wearing, likely to protect himself from the chalk and fairy dust that was unleashed during singer M.I.A’s performance.

Schwartzman too deemed that an appropriate farewell for the night, and he repeated the phrase. Schwartzman and co-host Reggie Watts were covered in the aforementioned detritus from the show, and both looked extremely relieved as they said goodnight.

PHOTOS: YouTube Music Awards 2013 | Arrivals

It couldn’t have been easy trying to command a (small) worldwide cadre of super-fickle Internet viewers, distracted as they generally are by smartphones and social media apps. And Schwartzman and Watts did their best with what they had.

Still, as the night wore on, many on Twitter were crossing their fingers that it would end on time. YouTube promised a 90-minute show and brought it home with two minutes to spare, proving that, in this case, shorter really is sweeter.

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