MTV's Video Music Awards are an annual test of how far show producers can push pop music stars to behave bizarrely in front of a live television audience. At this year's show – the 30th – that meant a twerking Miley Cyrus, a cursing Taylor Swift and a reuniting boy band.

As usual, the last thing on anyone's mind was who received what awards, and instead on the crazy performances. Amid those headline-making moments, here are some things you may have missed:

Lady Gaga's back-up dancers

In Gaga's carefully orchestrated opening performance of her new single Applause, she had considerable support in the form of mime-like back-up dancers. The spandexed men guided her through multiple monochrome wardrobe changes and wig switches in five short minutes.

Miley Cyrus did not win any awards

People are still trying to wrap their heads around Miley's performance. Not because it was, as MTV press would have us believe, "whimsically naughty", but just because it was bad.

We all have bad days at work and this was clearly hers. Also, she probably had more fun last night after the show than you did.

It was whitewashed

While pop culture celebrations of this magnitude never accurately display the diversity of the culture they purport to represent, this year's show struck an especially unpleasant note as it is the first time a nationally televised award show was broadcast from Brooklyn, New York – one of the most diverse places in the country.

The New York Times:

This was a banner year for clumsy white appropriation of black culture – the shambolic, trickster-esque performance by Ms Cyrus, to whom no one has apparently said "no" for the last six months or so, which included plenty of lewdness and a molestation of Robin Thicke; the ubiquity of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, the clumsy and intensely popular hip-hop duo, who were recipients of three awards, including best hip-hop video.

They also performed Same Love, their gay rights anthem, with the singer Mary Lambert, though when Jennifer Hudson emerged to duet the last part of the song with Ms Lambert, it felt like a sort of apologetic compensation for the night's whitewash. (For good measure, Eminem announced the details of his new album in commercials sponsored by Beats By Dre).

Stephen Colbert was not at the VMAs, but Daft Punk were

MTV and Comedy Central are part of the same Viacom family, but Daft Punk's appearance on The Colbert Report was cancelled because of the Video Music Awards and demands made by Daft Punk.

What Daft Punk did without Colbert:

What Colbert did without Daft Punk:

via New York Magazine

Kanye West did not do anything outrageous

Instead, shrouded in darkness with a stark background, he performed Blood On The Leaves, off his new album Yeezus. West's excellent performance almost made people forget about his appearance on his mother in-law's daytime television program earlier last week.

Barack Obama and Katy Perry tweeted at each other

… about healthcare!

T and C of TLC were there

As in T-Boz and Chilli, who introduced Drake.

Unfortunately, this brief reunion did not include a musical performance, unlike the far too short *NSYNC reunion that preceded it.