James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley are top winners at a tame MTV Video Music Awards

When a wooden politician delivers the best line of the MTV Music Video Awards, you know the thrill is gone.

Photo: James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley are top winners at a tame MTV Video Music Awards

So was the decadence, outrageousness and spontaneity that used to make the VMAs such a guilty pleasure.

James Blunt and Gnarls Barkley each took home two awards Thursday night. Pink's parody of bubble-headed pop tarts, "Stupid Girls," won for best pop video, Beyonce took home the best R&B video trophy for her booty-shaking "Check On It" and Fall Out Boy won the viewer's choice award for "Dance, Dance."

But nobody except a video choreographer's mother watches this show for the awards. Fans watch for the edgy skits, nearly naked starlets, foul-mouthed speeches and those embarrassingly bad dance numbers.

They do NOT watch for lectures from former Vice President Al Gore on global warming. When does the phrase "here's a photo of a glacier melting" ever fit into an awards show?

Gore did get a laugh, however, when he intoned, "I actually was not intending to be here tonight, but then MTV explained that Justin Timberlake was bringing sexy back."

Somewhere along the way, the MTV Awards seemed to have morphed into the Grammys, reports AP.

"This show has been lame farts for the past 20 years," host Jack Black said before he took the stage for his opening sketch. "And I'm going to light the match!"