When Daft Punk, MTV, and “Flan Cobbler” were called on the carpet hilariously by Stephen Colbert earlier this week (in the way where Stephen Colbert is so not pulling punches), it seemed there might be even more to the story.
As Colbert tells it, Daft Punk had agreed to appear on the Colbert Report’s StePhest Colbchella series Tuesday… that is, until the MTV bigwigs including Van Toffler stepped in and douchily said that the network’s “peeps” were “feelin’ funky” on allowing the sibling network to also have a Daft Punk segment.
We later learned that Daft Punk granted MTV a VMAs exclusive — or so it seems. Pitchfork seems to think Colbert and MTV may have conspired to virally promote the MTV appearance all along:
“ Update: Robin Thicke filled in and performed a different song featuring Pharrell, ‘Blurred Lines.’ So maybe it was the plan all along– an elaborate fake out to promote Daft Punk’s appearance at the VMAs. But maybe Robin Thicke, his dancers, and his band were actually able to pull off an elaborate performance with only two hours’ notice.”
However, the less skeptical New York Times paints a more Colbert-affirming version of events, explaining that MTV did pull rank and nix the appearance. Describing the tug of war as intense, the paper reports :
“MTV threatened to cut Daft Punk from the awards if the group also appeared on Colbert, and would not budge despite pleas from Comedy Central. On Tuesday’s show Mr. Colbert read an e-mail from Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks, saying that he was ‘not sure I can help you on this one.’ (The show’s Web site later displayed the redacted message, in which Mr. Toffler said that the band and its label had ‘sold us hard on some clip and live appearance based on them not showing up anywhere else.’) Viacom executives declined to interfere in the dispute, these people said, but Columbia Records, Daft Punk’s American label, got involved, advising the group not to risk its appearance on MTV.”
Times commenters too are in part skeptical that the Daft Punk replacement number was so well rounded considering the frame, but others suggest Colbert and his team had an idea the MTV saga was about to play out and planned accordingly.
If there is one takeaway from this we can assume is factual, it’s that that Van Toffler guy really does sound like a chode.
What do you think went down between Daft Punk, Stephen Colbert, and a raft of meddling execs?