Video on Trial

A Canadian show aired by MuchMusic (and recently picked up by Fuse in 2011; they actually used to be the official American version of said channel way back when), where 5 different comedians give their reviews and critiques to 5 different music videos. Of course, because these are comedians we're dealing with, this will often involve trying to make a mockery out of what happens in the video, and trying to find a real-life occurrence to connect it to.

Given the title of the show and its structure, the show does use some justice system-based motifs and imagery, including referring to the panelists as the jury and songs as cases, the introduction to a case featuring what they were "accused" of (followed by a humorous "sentencing" at the conclusion of the case), and more. The fifth season dropped the court room "look" from the show (and the accusations/verdicts), but most of the formula still there, at least.

This show provides examples of:

  • Broken Aesop: During "Born This Way," Trevor Boris points out that Lady Gaga wasn't born Lady Gaga, and that her real name is Stephanie.
  • Canada, Eh?: There have been a few specials featuring only Canadian music and lots of stereotyping to go around. Fortunately, there are
  • Cultural Cringe: Videos featuring Canadian artists of course get their day in court quite often here, since mocking them still gets the show Cancon credit.
  • Christmas Episode: The "Holiday Crap" specials.
  • Halloween Episode: One such episode featured "Thriller", "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, a Little More 'Touch Me'", and "Ghostbusters"
  • Mondegreen: No, the first case isn't actually named "Katy Swan", though the voiceover makes it sounds like it is.
  • Spiritual Successor:
    • MuchMusic used to have the yearly "Fromage" specials with Ed the Sock during the channel's year-end programming, where he reviewed the cheesiest or worst music videos of the past year, in a similarly comedic style.
    • Beginning in 2008, a direct successor to the later format used by Fromage (a countdown) was created for a new series of year-end specials, "Video on Trial: Best of the Worst"
    • Oddly on Fuse, the 2011 Bot W premiered at 6am on a random Thursday, four days before the Canadian premiere (though it did get a re-air later at a saner time).
  • This Trope Is Bleep: Most of the time the show doesn't bother to bleep much for Much because of Canada's looser stance on profanity on television. The Fuse version reverses the audio of the swear words, but they're still easily understood.
  • Toilet Humor: Once in a while. A noted instance came in "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul, where a panelist lampshaded the peculiarity of her interacting with a cartoon character named MC Skat Kat. Much of the following "review" ended up being sprinkled with jokes about litter boxes.
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