For those of you who missed it, I envy you. After watching MTV's Video Music Awards last night, my friend summed it up well: "OMG, Britney sucked HXC!" That's pretty much all there is to be said. Britney looked out shape, bored, arguably intoxicated, and just... messy. If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it here.

Given that Britney was the most exciting thing from this year's VMA's (not including Sarah Silverman's skewering of the former pop princess), I can only imagine what the Nielsen chart for the awards looked like. High ratings when Britney began her performance followed by a sharp drop-off as people with children and stomachs changed the channel, and then an Enron-like descent after she was done.

This may be a blessing, though, for Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), parent of MTV, because people finally are talking about the VMAs which lost thier relevance sometime during the Clinton Administration.

But the nice thing about watching Britney self-destruct is that she's not a major talent. It's not like Billie Holiday, or even Amy Winehouse, where we can watch the dysfunctional descent and say: "What a shame. So much talent and she's throwing it all away". No. With Britney, all we can do is laugh, and maybe feel a little bit sorry for her children... and any other children who happened to be watching.

It's hard to imagine why Britney even bothered: She was stumbling around on stage and barely danced at all. Did she really think the headlines would be anything other than what they were? Here's a sampling:

Spears bombs...

Spears' MTV comeback a big letdown

Spears disappoints in MTV comeback.

Britney Spears disaster: a dead career bounce

And of course Perez Hilton, who put it this way:

So it may finally be time to declare Britney's career completely over. I would say Novastar Financial (NYSE: NFI) is a better bet here.