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What is left to say when one of the most anticipated VMA performances in years bombs so badly, it causes Kid Rock and Tommy Lee to very nearly come to fisticuffs trying to one up each other trading "Yo Britney" jokes, while finally justifying Sean "Diddy" Combs's single, painfully confused facial expression? A round-up of what some of the world's (yes, the whole world was watching) critics thought about Britney Spears' comeback performance:

· "Dressed in sequined black underpants and bra, an out-of-shape Spears moved tentatively around the stage, getting totally outgrooved by her backup dancers and badly lip-syncing her way through the song whose main lyric was 'Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme." [WashPo]
· "At least she should have plenty of spare time to look after the kids...Britney Spears's long-awaited career relaunch at last night's MTV Video Music Awards produced some excruciating car-crash television..." [timesonline.co.uk]

· "When you have already writhed with a python and shown us your lady bits, a little bump and grind and sloppy lip synch to a monotone electro-pop number just isn't going to cut it." [Boston Globe]
· "[Will] go down in the history books as being one of the worst to grace the MTV Awards." [bbc.co.uk]
· "Spears was stuffed into a spangled bra and hot pants and jiggled like Jell-O as she sleepwalked through the song. She didn't seem to care that she danced like she had a pantload, that her lips weren't synched with the song, and that the tune isn't all that great." [NY Post]

And, finally, a differing point of view, from an MTV press release:

· "Spears commanded the stage with a sultry performance of her new song 'Gimme More' featuring a show-stopping extravaganza highlighted by sexy choreography and high-flying aerialists in an appearance that viewers will remember forever." [PR Newswire]