Madonna steals the show at the VMAs 2026, her jokes go viral online

Madonna was one of the most talked-about figures of the 2026 MTV VMAs — not only for the seven awards she won, but also for her unexpected, humor-filled moments during the ceremony.

While accepting the Best Dance award, Madonna appeared on stage together with Troye Sivan and Charli XCX, but admitted openly that she wasn’t entirely sure which project she was receiving the award for.

Charli XCX stepped in to explain that the trophy was for the film “Confessions II.” Madonna carried on with her jokes, asking Sivan and Charli XCX to come closer.

“Don’t stand so far away. Come here,” she told them. The singer then thanked directors David Toro and Solomon Chase for their work on the project.

But Madonna didn’t stop there. The “Like a Virgin” singer opened her acceptance speech by removing her leather jacket and pretending to pull “this thing out of her butt,” which she said had been “there all night.”

Later, she tried to explain the joke.

“You didn’t get my joke, did you? About the butt laser. You got it?” she asked the audience, referring to her opening performance at the awards ceremony.

“It was there all night and then I took it off. Anyway,” she added.

Madonna closed the speech by speaking enthusiastically about her love of dancing.

“Dancing brings everyone together. On the dance floor we are all equal.”

Social media users praised Madonna, the most-awarded artist of the evening with seven prizes, not least for admitting she didn’t know exactly what one of the trophies was for.

But another moment drew huge attention, when she put Sabrina Carpenter in the spotlight while accepting the Best Collaboration award.

As the two took the stage, Madonna, jokingly appearing “impatient,” explained how their collaboration on the song “Bring Your Love” had come about.

“When five days went by and I still hadn’t connected with Sabrina and hadn’t heard from her whether she wanted to do a song with me — five days! — I sent her a DM,” Madonna said.

Carpenter, 27, laughed off the joke, but then insisted on setting the record straight:

“My team is going crazy backstage. My team responds! Just so everyone knows, they respond to people!”

“I respond faster,” she added. “So direct contact with me is always the best way to reach me.”

The moment instantly went viral on social media.

One X user reacted with the word “ouch,” while another wrote that Carpenter looked “shocked by Madonna’s audacity.”

Others claimed the “Espresso” singer looked like she was trying to cut Madonna’s speech short, since she “kept saying random things.”

Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter opened the ceremony by performing their song “Bring Your Love” together, while Charli XCX later joined Madonna for the performance of “Danceteria.” It was Madonna’s first performance at the MTV VMAs in more than two decades.