Whoops! MTV Accidentally Played Fresh Prince During Prince Tribute Marathon

Yesterday, many of us were distraught to learn that Prince had died at the age of 57. People headed online to share their grief and many celebrities shared stories of times they had spent with the prolific musician and singer. MTV even hastily put together a marathon of Prince music videos, replacing episodes of Rob Dyrdrek’s Fantasy Factory on the channel. The tribute was a great way to spend the afternoon, that is, until MTV accidentally shoehorned in a Fresh Prince video in the middle of all of the Prince stuff. It was a pretty huge gaffe, and the internet, of course, noticed. 

  A few hours after the news of Prince’s death broke, people headed over to MTV to catch some of their Prince favorites. MTV isn’t as known for playing music at the level it once did, but the network is still very capable of throwing together an awesome tribute playlist during certain moments. They mostly got this playlist right, however, between the tracks “New Power Generation” and “Controversy” the former music giant, now reality television giant accidentally played “Girls Ain’t Nothing But Trouble” by Fresh Prince and D.J. Jazzy Jeff. Not exactly the same thing. Some of the people who were watching immediately headed to Twitter to share pithy comments about what happened. 

This person’s comment, for instance, was perfect. 

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This one hinted that someone may not have been so hot at searching for “Prince” in the archives. 

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And if you just need video proof of what happened, you can check it out, below. 

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There's obviously a major difference between Will Smith throwing out some goofy raps and Prince playing guitar like a boss, so this whole thing was probably pretty startling to the people watching. It's also pretty amusing in a lot of ways. In fact, it seems like the type of thing Prince would have gotten a big kick out of. He wasn't exactly the type of guy who preferred normalcy.  

News broke yesterday afternoon that Prince had passed away in his Paisley Park Compound in Minnesota early on Thursday morning. In the subsequent hours, fans learned that Prince had been ill a few days ago. Now rumors are swirling that opiates may have contributed to his ultimate death. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, his loss is a tremendous tragedy for the music industry and for people who have good taste. We'll bring you more information about the legendary musician and icon when it becomes available. 

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.