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Aubrey Plaza interrupted Will Ferrell as he accepted the Comedic Genius award at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, tugging at the Golden Popcorn trophy before returning to her seat. MTV said the moment was unplanned and that producers asked Plaza to leave the show. The reports do not establish whether there was any undisclosed coordination or settle her private motive.
What happened onstage?
Plaza, then known for playing April on Parks and Recreation, walked onto the stage while Ferrell was accepting his Comedic Genius award. She had a drink in hand and tugged at the trophy as he held on to it. Plaza did not speak during the brief exchange.
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Ferrell asked, “What’s happening?” and “Are you OK?” He kept hold of the award. Plaza then returned to her front-row seat; CBS reported that she spilled her drink as she sat down. Ferrell followed with, “Just like we rehearsed it.” The line was a joke, not evidence that the interruption had actually been rehearsed.
Why was Aubrey Plaza asked to leave?
MTV told reporters the interruption was unplanned and that show producers asked Plaza to leave. Some contemporary coverage described her as escorted out, but “asked to leave” is the careful wording supported by MTV’s reported account. The reporting does not establish an arrest, a permanent ban, or a formal disciplinary process.
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Was it a stunt to promote The To Do List?
The words “The To Do List,” the title of Plaza’s upcoming film, were written across her chest and visible during the incident. That made promotion an obvious interpretation. The Los Angeles Times noted the film-title close-up and questioned whether the moment was as unplanned as it appeared, but did not resolve that question. MTV’s contemporaneous position, reported by several outlets, was that the interruption was unplanned; the available accounts do not conclusively establish Plaza’s private intent or rule out undisclosed coordination.
Plaza later tweeted, “Thanks for the advice @kanyewest,” and “Went better than planned!” The Los Angeles Times connected the reference to Kanye West’s interruption of Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Plaza’s tweet and the visible gesture support describing the moment as a reference to that incident, but they do not establish that the two episodes had the same circumstances.
What did Ferrell and Plaza say afterward?
Ferrell’s onstage “Just like we rehearsed it” quip became the most memorable response to the interruption. Later, speaking to MTV News, he joked that Plaza seemed to want to tell him something important, “but there was no message.” The Los Angeles Times’s transcript contains a likely transcription error in that later quote, so it is best understood as a joke rather than reproduced as a verbatim quotation.
Plaza’s later Kanye West tweet added to the impression that she was playing with the familiar awards-show interruption format. Neither the joke nor the tweet, however, settles whether the incident had been coordinated in advance.
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Coverage published on April 15, 2013, the day after the awards, agrees on the central sequence: Plaza approached Ferrell during his acceptance speech, tugged at the trophy, returned to her seat, and MTV said producers asked her to leave. The visible film title and Plaza’s later tweet offer context for why the moment was read as promotional and compared with West’s interruption, but the accounts do not provide a firsthand production record that resolves planning or motive.
Quick Recap
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- Established: Plaza interrupted Ferrell while he held the Comedic Genius Golden Popcorn and tugged at it.
- Attributed to MTV: The interruption was unplanned, and producers asked Plaza to leave the show.
- Visible clue: “The To Do List” was written across Plaza’s chest.
- Not established: Whether there was any hidden coordination or what Plaza privately intended beyond the visible gesture and later tweet.
Sources
- CBS News / ET Online, “Aubrey Plaza kicked out of MTV Movie Awards,” April 15, 2013.
- Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times, “MTV Movie Awards: Was Aubrey Plaza’s stunt with Ferrell planned?”, April 15, 2013.
- Greg Gilman, TheWrap, “MTV Movie Awards: Aubrey Plaza Pulls a ‘Kanye’ on Will Ferrell (Video),” April 15, 2013.
- ABC News video, “‘Parks and Rec’ Star, Drink in Hand, Storms MTV Stage,” April 15, 2013.
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