A Canadian show aired by MuchMusic (and later picked up by Fuse in 2011; they actually used to be the official American version of said channel way back when), where 5 different comedians comedically riff over 5 different music videos.
Given the title of the show and its structure, the show did use some justice system-based motifs and imagery, including referring to the panelists as the jury and songs as cases, the introduction to a case featuring what they were "accused" of (followed by a humorous "sentencing" at the conclusion of the case), and more, especially in the earlier seasons. The fifth season dropped most of the courtroom motifs from the show's presentation, although the core format remained identical.
The final season, which premiered in July 2014, underwent a major Retool: Aisha Alfa and Paul Lemieux became permanent hosts and the show relied more on cutaway gags and recurring segments (making it feel more like Tosh.0) rather than the rapid-fire riffing. It only lasted 4 episodes before Much pulled the plug on the show completely as a part of major layoffs
(which also saw the cancellation of Much's remaining original music programs, and a hiatus for its weekly countdown).
This show provides examples of:
- Broken Aesop: During "Born This Way," Trevor Boris points out that Lady Gaga wasn't born Lady Gaga, and that her real name is Stephanie.
- Camp Gay: Trevor Borris is caught sporting a pink "Mrs. Jonas" t-shirt on episodes featuring the famous Disney Channel heartthrobs' videos.
- Chroma Key: They sometimes use a green screen for jokes or backgrounds, but most of the time the jury is just in front of a plain black wall.
- As of the 2014 revamp, they now have a green screen set with the Toronto skyline,
- Cultural Cringe: Videos featuring Canadian artists got their day in court quite often. The mere presence of the mockery is probably enough to qualify for Canadian content to begin with, but they cranked the stereotyping up to eleven when they did a special episode focusing exclusively on Canadian music.
- Christmas Episode: The "Holiday Crap" specials.
- Foreign Remake Special Videos Unit Video on Trial, the U.S. version on Fuse
- Halloween Episode: Several, such as the "Halloween Spooktacular"
- In-Universe Factoid Failure: The music video for "Break Stuff" by Limp Bizkit was on the docket for the "So 90s" special. Juror Nikki Payne points out though that the song was not from the 90s and was actually released in the year 2000.
- No Budget (In-Universe): "Can you say budget? We can't. We're actually contractually not allowed to bring it up."
- Logic Bomb: "Enrique Iglesias is my favourite male lesbian".
- Spin-Off: Stars on Trial aired as a year-end special, focusing on celebrities in general
- The regulars also hosted a "Top 50 Funniest Videos" special for Much, with a similar style.
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Spiritual Successor:- MuchMusic used air an Ed the Sock special called Fromage during its year-end programming, where he riffed on the cheesiest and/or worst music videos of the past year, in a similarly comedic and Deadpan Snarker style. After an absence from Much for the longest time, the character returned as a panelist on a 90's special in 2013.
- Beginning in 2008, the series began producing Best of the Worst specials, which itself was a spiritual successor to the later format used by Fromage (a countdown of the cheesiest videos of the year).
- Oddly on Fuse, the 2011 Bot W premiered at 6am on a random Thursday, four days before the Canadian premiere (though it did get a re-air later at a saner time).
- The Comedy Network's version of Match Game featured a number of Video on Trial veterans as guests, primarily host Darrin Rose and regular panelist Debra Di Giovanni.
- The Music Video Show takes cues from the show, except there is one music video showcased instead of five. It even takes the split screen idea from Vo T.
- Toilet Humor: Once in a while. A noted instance came in "Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul, where a panelist lampshaded that the singer was interacting with a cartoon character named MC Skat Kat. Most of the comments that followed were peppered with jokes about litter boxes.
- Wham Episode: An entire episode was devoted to "Telephone".
