The much-discussed Britney Spears documentary, Framing Britney Spears, includes footage of Sarah Silverman mocking the pop star at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. “[She’s] 25 years old and she’s already accomplished everything she’s going to accomplish in her life,” Silverman joked. “It’s mind-blowing. And she’s so grown-up. She’s a mother, you know? It’s crazy. It’s weird to think that just a few years ago on this very show, she was this, like, sweet, innocent little girl in slutty clothes riding around with a python.” She also called Spears’ kids the “most adorable mistakes you will ever see!”
Ever since the documentary was released on Hulu, Silverman has been hounded by fans of the “Toxic” singer who feel that her jokes went too far. She replied to the criticism on Twitter, writing, “I was known then 4 roasts. MTV asked me to mini-roast Britney after her big performance. While she was performing I was having diarrhea & going over my jokes. Had no idea she didn’t kill. Unfortunate. Art changes over yrs as we know more & the world changes.” This was the same VMAs as Spears’ notorious performance of “Gimme More,” which the New York Times called a “fiasco” (it also inspired the “leave Britney alone!” video). “Ms. Spears teetered through her dance steps and mouthed only occasional words in a wan attempt to lip-synch her new single,” the review continued. Silverman wishes she could “delete” her cruel jokes at Spears’ expense, but “I can’t.”
I was known then 4 roasts. MTV asked me to mini-roast Britney after her big performance. While she was performing I was having diarrhea & going over my jokes. Had no idea she didn’t kill. Unfortunate. Art changes over yrs as we know more & the world changes.
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 8, 2021
I wish I could delete it but I can’t. But you are posting it for people to see. So r u trying to be kind or right?
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 8, 2021
This wasn’t the first time she faced a backlash to her Britney jokes, either.
Silverman was slammed at the time, too. Days after the VMAs, she told Us Weekly, “The joke that everyone was upset about — me calling the kids ‘adorable mistakes’ — was the most innocuous joke. It never occurred to me that would be deemed hurtful or over the line. I don’t want to get into feuds with girls half my age. I’m in it to be funny and not for the drama. It’s embarrassing.”
There’s a lesson to be learned in all this. And that’s:
Be Ted Lasso
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) February 5, 2021
(Via US Weekly)