I know that even Prince himself appears to be over this at this point (inviting Mr. Timberflake to his Globe after-party) but the whole incident still gnaws at my hide. I am a big awards show fan and have been my whole life. I have see virtually every Grammys, Emmys, Oscars, Globes, and even the bastard child of award shows, the People's Choice Awards, over the last 20 years. In all that time I cannot recall anyone ever dissing an artist who was not in attendance. The whole point of these award shows is to celebrate the achievement of someone so how would anyone think it would be prudent to turn a winner into an object of ridicule. JT made a colossal blunder with his awards' show shenanigans and I would think it just as inappropriate and wrong if he would have turned his juvenile humor on someone who was not my favorite musician.

That being said, I do have a sense of humor about the man (see any of my comments about "The Rainbow Children" or "Graffiti Bridge") and understand that he puts himself up to be the object of parody with many of his decisions, both personal and professional. I have laughed along with many of these (of course the Dave Chappelle basketball skit and the almost worshipping "Prince Show" deserve mention) and only really found fault with the attacks that were personal or mean-spirited. I can definitely laugh at Tommy Davidson doing a parody or Prince going into a McDonald's and ordering food to the tune of "Sign O the Times" but I thought the Prince parody with Billy Crystal singing "I Am the World" in the 1985 SNL skit was below the belt. It's all about context and intent and while most Prince lampooning I can laugh at, there are just some instances that are harder to tolerate.

The JT incident reminded me of the ill-fated Rosie O'Donnell appearance in 1996. Here Prince had agreed to do her show and was very respectful of the hostess. Her extended gag about the name change which visibly made Prince uncomfortable was out-of-bounds and I wish Prince would have gone through with his threat of saying goodnight and leaving that witch on stage with dead air. Ask about it once, that's fine, you're trying to answer a question the public wants to know. But his unwillingness to play along should have shut the door right there. Instead she asks him if she can call him "Taffy" and the audience of mindless drones titters in glee.

Should a host ask probing questions of a guest? Yeah, if it's "60 Minutes" or "Larry King" and said artist has agreed to such probing. But on the fricking "Rosie O'Donnell" show, Prince has to be brow-beaten when there was so much else that could have been discussed. I remember going on a couple of Rosie chat boards after the incident and berating the hostess for her inappropriate behavior and her little minions defended her and called P. weird and unfriendly. He was friendly enough to go on the show, wasn't he? Rosie acted like an ass in that interview and her treatment of Prince was indefensible.

So in this corner, you have an award presenter making fun of someone not there to receive their award, completely destroying any semblance of award decorum. In the other corner, you have a talk show host so desperate for laughs that she skewers someone who has agreed to come on her show and promote his album, which is really the only thing shows like Rosie's were good for. Which was a worse slight?

All I know is they both pissed me off.

it's really not that important. Yes Prince showed up late, missed his award show, got made fun of in terms of his height, and when it was all over where did everyone go? To party with Prince! It's all good. Time to move on.

They both pissed me off, but I thought Prince totally reversed it on Rosie and made her feel extremely uncomfortable.. She was scared he was gonna get pissed by the end.

I think its cute when people harmlessly poke fun at Prince
He doesn't seem to mind! Besides, half of the time he leaves himself wide
open for parody

Great Point There!

I was watching Rosie that day. People think Prince is an Ass at times but actually its called Class~ Not something written on the roof of someones ass~

Prince has Fabulous talent that speaks for its self. People should quit Fucking with him. But I guess you know your the shit with people fuck with ya...

I would say that Rosie was old enough to know better which means she is may never learn how to be a decent classy person.

Justin is young and dumb. He has time on his side to learn not to go there. Hey Justin, people quit talking about how short Prince is a long time ago. Where were you? Oh thats right... In diapers~ lol!

IMO Rosie is more Guilty of being an ASS, Thanks for pointing that out-
Now I'm tilting towards the Donalds favor...

Where has your sense of humour gone? I thought the JT joke was pretty funny. Prince makes jokes like that as well of other people (remember his Ozzy Osbourne dance?). I think he can see the humour in it.

Oh yeh I forgot to mention...

Prince Peeee'd all over Rosies stage with "The Holy River"
The guitar solo was Beautifully Amazing!

Sometimes it seems like his talent is his revenge <

Just saw the JT video. It was a joke...a minor one at that. I think the Rosie thing is much more disrespectful that JT.

One celebrity pokes fun at another celebrity when the first celebrity fails to arrive on time to receive a meaningless award for a pop song which features in an animated fiction film about dancing penguins.

No-one died. Nothing to see. Move on.

.

As soon as JT did that, I turned to my wife and said:

"I'm glad JT did that. Now I will have lots of threads to read on prince.org by people who can't take a joke and don't think Prince can either."

Seriously, it was not a big deal at all. It was an innocent joke. Prince is not immune to a little fun being poked at him and the fact that JT did that does not make him a bad person. I'm sorry your precious Prince got made fun of. I have no way of actually knowing, but I doubt he minded, so neither should we.

Peace!

You just have to let it go, GottaLetitgo.

i'm sorry, but i didnt think taffy was that out of line. the name change was idiotic. i understand WHY he did it with the contracts as they were, but being so serious ("god told me my name is this unpronouncable symbol") about it instead of just saying "hey, due to this contract, i can't release under prince" was an insanely stupid move, and joke worthy.

PurpleKnight said:

Prince is not God!

Whoa...mindbender.

GottaLetitgo said:

blasphemers!

Can we just get it over with and change the name of the website to JT.Org?

Where is your righteous indignation, people?

PurpleKnight said:

I've got a Master's in English. I could write a mini-essay on snot.

PurpleKnight said:

me too.

Guess you can say the JT thing is old news by now anyway....he humbly entered through the doors of Prince's purple party, as shown by ET last night. He looked around both ways kind of in a sneaky way to see if anyone was looking before he slid through the door to the party...see after all that...Justin knows who the "Prince" is...

langebleu said:

And a song that he sneezed out in his sleep. It's not even that good.

GottaLetitgo said:

Would that be worth reading?

GottaLetitgo said:

No, God would have realeased the Musicology DVD

sitruk7 said:

I saw Rosie on the WW (Whatever letter they use at the end now) wrestling a Donald Trump look alike the other night.

'Nuff Said.

Timberlake's jab was funny and harmless. O'Donnell's was just stupid, tired & annoying.

GottaLetitgo said:

Well said bro,like u said 'award presenter'. What is jt 2 the non-bias?

jt = I brought sex back.

Prince = it never left!

I can assure u, GottaLetitgo dat if jt was not in his comfort area he would be the cryin boy of Punked, like he was. anyone can look good settin this up, but when dat lil boy is in different territory it all becomes logical and 2nd nature. hes just a joker no one seriously rates him!

Sam 8)

Justin Timberlake ADORES Prince. If you have a video of that Beyonce-Prince Grammy performance ... at the end Justin turns to his mom grinning and smiling and mouths something like "that's great" or "that's hot."

There's a difference between teasing with love, as Justin did, and being mean-spirited.

There was one awards show where Chris Rock (oscars) made fun of some actors as not being real actors. IT was not received well. Neither was Rock's hosting of MTV awards when he dissed some entertainers in attendance.

This audience would have rejected JT as other audiences did C.Rock had the behavior actually been insulting.