Robin Williams MTV VMAs tribute branded 'offensive': 'It would've been less insulting to do nothing'

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Somewhere between Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” jiggling and Taylor Swift’s typically pedestrian pop performance was a pictorial tribute that was so bad, it actually caused offense.

Despite being an evening celebrating commercial music videos, the MTV VMAs never-the-less decided it should probably do something to mark the sudden passing of Robin Williams.

So it shoved together a 20-second slide show featuring random images of the star that looked not unlike a PowerPoint presentation cobbled together by a seven year old about 10 minutes prior to broadcast.

And their (lack of) effort didn’t go unnoticed. Many viewers took to Twitter to complain about the montage (scroll down to watch it in full):

Perhaps even worse, they layered said montage over a particularly limp Coldplay soundtrack, that added an extra air of whimsical nonchalance to what should have been a touching tribute.

Williams was found dead on 11 August after he took his own life. He was 63.

His publicist confirmed that he had been suffering from “severe depression” after he was admitted to a rehabilitation clinic a month previously to continue to focus “on his sobriety”.

It later emerged that he had been in the early stages of Parkinson's disease.

A tribute to Williams will air at the Emmy Awards 2014 on 25 August. Hopefully they've reached outside the remit of ClipArt to create theirs.