MTV, Other Networks Ban Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ Video

Late last week, Lady Gaga dropped the most anticipated release of recent months, a collaboration with Beyonce, under the direction of Jonas Åkerlund, which also helmed her “Paparazzi” video. “Telephone” is more than a regular music video: it’s more of a short film that spans over nine and a half minutes, but fans won’t be seeing it on television anytime soon, as MTV and a handful of other networks have already banned it, Fox News says.

Though MTV dropped the “Music Television” from its name a short while back, the decision not to show Gaga’s latest video still came as an unpleasant surprise, especially since fans were actually hoping it wouldn’t go down that road. Given the content of the clip and the foul language involved, the wisest decision would have been not to show it during the day, which is the same treatment other artists also got in the past with their work.

“Meanwhile, MTV on Saturday banned Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ video clip and more TV networks are expected to follow suit with its content ensuring they cannot show it during regular programming. The extravagant video, featuring Beyonce, launched online on Thursday (EST) and has been viewed more than 8 million times on YouTube,” Fox News writes. Right now, the video in question has over 14 million hits on Gaga’s YouTube channel.

This only makes MTV’s decision even worse, as Gather points out. “Oh, MTV, how we used to complain when you’d decide not to show Madonna’s ‘Justify My Love’ video, or air Jay-Z’s ‘99 Problems’ only between 6 pm and 6 am. Now the ‘music’ network has announced it shan’t be showing Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ mini-movie at all, a crippling blow to people who don’t have Internet access and those 13 million [sic] folks who’ve already seen it at YouTube. The network [… is] trying to get back some of its relevance by announcing what it won’t play. Just as long as that vitamin-enriched, brainpower-expanding Jersey Shore stays on. And you continue to not bring back Martha Quinn, Kennedy, Jesse Camp, and the small handful of other ‘personalities’ you’ve foisted upon us over the years,” Gather writes, clearly not approving of MTV’s decision to ban the video completely.

The Quentin Tarantino-inspired mini-film, based on a script by Jonas Åkerlund and Lady Gaga, sees the duo Gaga – Beyonce as partners in crime embarking on a killing spree, while also looking extremely fashionable and flexible in their energetic dance moves. In all fairness, the video does include some swearing and a lot of revealing outfits, but, according to many, that still does not justify MTV’s decision not to show it at all.