VMA Mayhem Monday: Michael Jackson Accidentally Crowns Himself 'Greatest Living Artist' At The 2002 VMAs

Some VMA moments of mayhem are planned but still unrestrained and totally balls-out -- or ass-out, if you will, like when Howard Stern let it all hang out as Fartman at the 1992 VMAs.

Other VMA moments of mayhem are off-the-cuff, of the totally mortifying, completely cringe-tastic, teeth-gritting, there's-no-way-in-hell-this-was-planned pure-horror ilk.

Like at the 2002 VMAs, when Britney Spears (shown here, lookin' like the missing member of the Village People) presented Michael Jackson with a birthday present, which he interpreted as an MTV Artist of the Millennium Award and then proceeded to deliver an acceptance speech as though that was the world we were actually living in.

Not that he didn't deserve such an award, but, you know... it didn't exist. And it was his birthday. That's why there was cake. A cake that unofficially marked his point of no return, if you were keeping track of that kind of thing, and as if his face didn't kinda say that already.

Read Michael's wackadoo acceptance speech, and check out 2008 VMA host Russell Brand's take on the monumental moment of VMA mayhem.

+ Plus: Eminem's Mayhem Monday!

Tags Britney Spears, Celebrity, Howard Stern, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Russell Brand, video, Videos, VMAs, VMAs