In the Mix

Britney Spears has participated in her share of shock value MTV VMA award appearances, from smooching with Madonna to cavorting with a giant python. But if those spectacles were silly, Sunday night's was sad.

The song was "Gimme More," the effectively funky dance track produced by Nate "Danjahandz" Hill that seemed poised to announce her return from shaven-headed underwearless ignominy with its opening salvo: "It's Britney, bitch!"

But while Spears has mainly been known for bad behavior of late, this was just bad. Prefab pop wouldn't seem to be that difficult to pull off live: Nail your choreographed dance steps, lip sync like you mean it, and make sure your abs are tight. But the Britney comeback train derailed at every turn, as she sleepwalked through her dance steps, didn't bother to mouth the words much of the time, and appeared unforgivably soft bodied, with a disturbingly vacant look in her eyes.

Sarah Silverman's follow up comments might have seemed egregiously cruel if Spears hadn't been so terrible. She called Spear's children "the most adorable mistakes you'll ever see" and labeled the former teen star "amazing. She's 25 years old, and has accomplished everything she's going to accomplish in life." Ouch.