Wacky was the word when the YouTube Awards made its debut last night at New York City’s Pier 36; we had award winner’s being announced via the medium of cake, a choose-your-own-ending performance from Avicii and Macklemore holding a baby.

EminemYouTube's Artist of The Year, Eminem, performs at Pier 36, NY.

Various media outlets have described the awards as chaotic and messy, and most totally fell for the hype. The show’s creative director Spike Jonze was prepared by being unprepared – armed only with a bullet point list, voted on by YouTube users.

“I’m used to that and that’s the way I like to work," said Reggie Watts, one half of the hosting team. “I cannot reiterate how we had no idea what was going to happen, ever," said Jason Schwartzman – the other half - after the show.

"All we had on the cards were the next award, but there were no lines and nothing scripted and we had no idea what was going to happen next." (BBC)

The whole thing was ‘mental’, but it was difficult to escape the feeling that it was supposed to be 'mental'; that a bunch of ‘creative’ marketing thugs sat around on soft cushions, popping ideas into little Velcro balls and chucking them at a Velcro wall.

What they came up with was a contrived mess, trying desperately to stand out from the crowd.

MacklemoreWacky Mackie joked about winning a baby

It’s pretty easy to get a gauge on how much these awards will actually mean to the artists who won them. Eminem, for instance, won Artist of The Year, while his latest offerering – Rap God – is roundly criticised for being ‘a bit rubbish’.

It’s difficult to imagine it taking up a similar level of gravity to that of the myriad Grammys and other awards he’s picked up.

While the press have lapped up YouTube’s attempt to throw caution to the wind with their own wacky brand of award ceremony, another year of this and people will surely see through the manufactured zaniness.