Pet Rock: The Pop Culture Blog

"Superbad" cleaned up at the MTV Movie Award nominations Tuesday morning, earning five nominations including Best Movie and Best Comedic Performance (Jonah Hill).

The Golden Popcorn statues get handed out June 1 in Universal City, Calif., and on your television set. More important, after seeing this story online, I got to thinking. And thinking more often than not leads to Googling. And Googling leads to remembering a link Sammy Search Engines once sent me: The "Superbad" McLovin ID maker.

Click the pic and make your own McLovin ID. Then come back and post the link in the comments field. Show us your McLovin!

Get your own Mclovin ID

Networks finally ran out of celebrities to cast on reality shows, so they're turning to their kids for help.

MTV debuts "Rock the Cradle" on Thursday night at 10 p.m., which features nine offspring of famous musicians competing for a record deal.

Sounds tragic in a lot of ways. But, at least we can say MTV is producing a show about music.

For some of you, these next two sentences may be hard to believe: There was a time when MTV aired original shows as a way to break up videos and promote different genres of music. Music Television, a network once aptly named, created programs about music and pop culture and would air them. No, seriously, it's true.

This was before The Real World and The Hills, before True Life and MTV Cribs.

Top 5 Thursday remembers all too well those days when the television was about music and not about, well, television. So here we go with our Top 5 countdown of the best old-school shows from MTV:

5) Headbanger's Ball

Metal heads partied deep into the night when this show came along. If not for host Riki Rachtman, there's a lot of music none of us would ever have been introduced to and spent money on back then.

4) 120 Minutes

When alternative music hit the scene, MTV went nuts. It soon became mainstream to be alternative. And even if you weren't too into this music, you watched this show on Sunday nights.

3) Beavis & Butthead

Arguably the most controversial show in MTV history. It started out as an excuse to play bad videos and then blew up into a full-fledged pop culture phenomenon. Love 'em or hate 'em, you watched this show and yelled "Kick me in the jimmy!" on more than one occasion. It's OK, you don't have to lie. We know you did. Heck, I did it on Monday.

2) Remote Control

An MTV classic and its first game show that paved the way for all those silly shows we watched (and loved) during the network's Spring Break coverage. Adam Sandler and Denis Leary got their starts here, as did Colin Quinn and the lovely Kari Wuhrer. Buzz-bin.com will tell you more about this show just in case you don't remember it. Buzz-bin.com will also show you video clips of "Beat the Bishop" and other elements of the show just in case you remember it and want to watch.

1) Yo! MTV Raps

Fab 5 Freddy. Ed Lover. Dr. Dre. 'Nuff said . . . but we'll say more anyway. The Ed Lover Dance. Rappers showing their normal side instead of acting hard. A feeling of hanging out in your basement with Ed, Dre and whatever big-name or up-and-coming rap artists came on the show that week. Fab 5 Freddy interviewing people on location and always being positive no matter what the interview subject said. (I still don't think he ever listened to what they said, but it was compelling TV.) By the way, MTV is honoring the 20-year anniverary of the show's start this April. Check the schedule and watch old clips at yo.mtv.com (and let me know if you beat a score of 8,000 on the Yo! quiz).

P.S. Other shows we liked but not in our top 5: The Cut, House of Style, Beauty and the Beach, Singled Out, Fade to Black.

- Mark La Monica

We're never afraid to admit our love for "The Hills" here in Pet Rock. Great show, great drama, hot ladies, schmucky guys. It's the new recipe for success on television.

And while we spoke of Lauren Conrad last week for making clothes, this week's news bit is about someone else taking off their clothes.

Topless photos have surfaced online of Audrina Patridge, who stars as Audrina Patridge on MTV's highest-rated show ever, just in time for the March 24 premiere of its new season.

We can't in good conscience -- translation: I wan't to keep my job -- post the photos here or link directly to them. However, we can suggest typing her name into the search box onGoogle news. Pet Rock knows at least one person who will thoroughly appreciate the search results.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the next season of "The Hills" (not this one coming up next week.) Will MTV whack her from the show? We hope not.

At least Audrina manned up about it, saying in a statement:

"I took these photos years ago, when I was just out of high school and beginning to model. I was young and very trusting of others, and I didn't know to protect myself. It is a lesson learned, for myself, and hopefully for the young girls who look up to me."

Why do people apologize for doing things? Why are they looked at negatively for these types of things? Pet Rock fully supports free will and people's right to do whatever they want. In today's society, people can do and say what they want, then apologize for it and everything is all good. Why apologize? Say and do what you want. Live your life.

Reports are floating about the Internet that the first video off the new Gnarls Barkley album has been banned from MTV.

Apparently, they think the video for "Run" may cause people to hav epileptic seizures with all the funky designs flying and strobelighting all around in the background.

Not exactly true. MTV UK asked Gnarls to recut the video, which they did in time to debut on Thursday's edition of MTV's "TRL."

The video will then go into rotation on Monday. Let the seizures fly!

I suppose that's better than being banned for lewd content, like back in the day with Motley Crue, 2 Live Crew and Andrew "Dice" Clay.

Here's the video. The really crazy stuff kicks in around the 2:15 mark. You decide what would happen if people watched it a lot.

By Mark La Monica

It's true. I watch "The Hills." I'm not ashamed to admit it. I don't, however, go online to watch the aftershow. That just seems a bit over the top.

But I got suckered into watching it last night when MTV put the show on television. Even with the live interview with Lauren Conrad and her greatest smile in television history, I'm ashamed I won't get back those 30 minutes of life. (That puts my career running total at 234 days I wish I could have back.)

But at least I'm not alone in the enjoyment received from watching "The Hills." It's the top-rated show on MTV, so I guess I'm doing something right.

But this full disclosure right here will cost me plenty of street cred: I was in 7-Eleven one day, happened to see Teen Vogue and looked in the masthead for LC and Whitney's name. No such luck. I put the magazine down and prayed the security camera ran out of tape.

Alas, such is life. Click on the Lauren Conrad photo above for some photos from last night's season finale.

By Mark La Monica

With this season of "The Hills" winding down -- don't even front, you know you watch it, too -- it's time for some random thoughts about the show.

* Oh great, just what we needed, another Pratt on television acting hard.

* Seriously, I haven't seen that bad an acting job since Ben Affleck did that bathroom mirror scene in "Gigli." Nice work, whatever your name was, Spencer's sister. (It's not worth the Google, but L.C. nailed it with her caddy "She-Pratt" quip.)

* Anyone else notice the blatant show of guilt by part-mute, part-syllablic grunter Justin-Bobby at the end of the show? He put the hair in a ponytail and actually spoke. Prior to this episode, all we saw of him was long hair and mono-syllablic grunts.

Disclaimer time: We fully realize that the opinions we form about these people on "The Hills" are based solely on what we see on television. We fully realize that show producers and editors have a story to tell and that story is never the full story. Now back to the show.

* Where do these producers find these clowns, er, guys, to be on this show? I refuse to believe the girls are capable of continually finding these rampaging non-winners on their own. These brohams are an impressive collection of, well, we'll let you insert your preferred derogatory noun. Then again, maybe it's just an L.A. thing.

* We renew our opinions from last season: No way Heidi goes through with the wedding. If you come across any recent appearances by them, the guess here is that's just to not ruin the season finale.

* Slowly starting to gain some appreciation for Brody. Not really sure what he does in life, but he seems to stay above the fray.

* Lauren Conrad still has the greatest smile in television history.

* In recent episodes, they moved Whitney out of the office on assignments. Good to see her career develop, but I miss Whitney in her role of "Taxicab Confessions" driver. She basically would sit at her desk and just poke and prod L.C. with questions until she spilled. Great work if you can get it.

* OK, this episode trivia quiz is scary, disturbing, interesting, amusing, scary, disturbing, interesting and amusing.

By Mark La Monica

Britney Spears' comatose/nervous/Am I Brooke Hogan? performance notwithstanding, the VMAs have been slaughtered by MTV.

It's a shame, seeing how the VMAs once represented the rebellious nature in all of us. It was anything goes at the VMAs, from outrageous performances (Madonna, Britney and Christina) to outlandish entrances (Howard Stern flying in as "Fartman").

Now, the executives at MTV squashed it all and created an event that was more Dick Clark's Rockin Eve than "I Want My MTV!"

Those execs cited declining ratings as a reason to revamp the show from awards and performances to artists singing in separate suites and a small array of awards and rushed acceptance speeches. Quick question: what show or event doesn't produce lower ratings these days than in the past? With the advent of TiVOs and DVRs and 4,719 channels to choose from, decreased ratings an occupational hazard.

But to completely blow up the VMAs, once the cable station's shining moment? It doesn't make sense. Award shows were constructed for television purposes. Sure, it was probably pretty cool to be in one of the suites rockin' with the Foo Fighters, head-noddin' with Kanye West or chillin' with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. But it made for exceptionally terrible television. We're talking "The Magic Hour" terrible.

With the exception of R&B singer Chris Brown, no one else seemed like they wanted to be there.

During the show, MTV promised fewer repeat airings of the show (they must have known how bad a job they were doing) and the chance to watch complete in-suite performances online. Has the Internet has killed the video star the way video killed the radio star? For one night a year, we hope not.

We shouldn't expect MTV to heed JT's advice and play more videos. It's an online world now, for good or for bad. But to destroy the station's flagship night makes no sense. Just don't pin it all on Spears, or even the remarkably awful Sarah Silverman monologue. The MTV execs destroyed the VMAs.

• Britney Spears' VMA performance photos
• MTV VMA photos