Who is the MVP of the Summer of 2013?

By Ryan O'Connell on 08/08/2013 • ( 1 )

The summer of 2013 is closing in on the finish line.

It doesn’t seem fair. Wasn’t it just spring? Didn’t LeBron James just win the NBA Championship? Didn’t football just end? Didn’t I just get my first suntan/sunburn of the season?

Oh well. With a little over a month left of summer, it’s time to start looking back and it’s time to start looking at some potential candidates for this summer’s Most Valuable Player.

But first, what constitutes the Most Valuable Player of the summer?

Well for starters, who or what that ends up being named Most Valuable Player of the summer had to have made the summer noticeably better. They’ve had to have had an impact on how awesome the summer was, or least tried to be. Without the MVP, the summer wouldn’t haven’t been as exciting, as entertaining, as simply delightful. The MVP must have performed at a high level throughout the entire summer- no taking time off or laying any eggs. The MVP’s success directly led to the success of the summer. The two are joined at the hip.

Halfway through August, we can start to narrow the field. We’ll then tackle this issue head on in the beginning of September, thus giving any late comers a shot.

Giddy Up America’s Summer 2013 Most Valuable Player Candidates

Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg – creators of This Is the End

I’ll be the first to admit that I missed the majority of movies that came out this summer, but This Is The End was the one movie I deemed early on that was a can’t miss. It was everything I wanted and so much more. Effin’ hilarious. Was it the best movie of the summer? That’s debatable. Larry over in Marketing is standing behind The Place Behind the Pines and I’m sure a line would form to the left of people making their case for Pacific Rim, World War Z or one of those weird ass, creepy as shit, dime a dozen horror movies that come out every other day now. But I’m all in on This Is The End and when all is said and done, think it’ll be the definitive movie of the summer of 2013.

John Oliver – fill-in host for The Daily Show

When Jon Stewart announced this spring that he’d be taking the summer off to direct a movie, there was plenty of reasons out there to think that as a result, The Daily Show would essentially be taking the summer off too. Then it was announced that one of the show’s main correspondents, John Oliver, would be filling in for Stewart. Promising, but still, came with more than a few if’s and reservations. But Oliver has been nothing short of amazing this summer and his exasperated lunacy has perfectly aligned itself with a summer that has been chalk full of crazy news stories- Anthony Weiner, that Mayor in San Diego, the NSA/Snowden mess, the George Zimmerman trial, pretty much everything to come out of Texas and more.

Rhianna – the winner of Instagram

If Instagram is any kind of judge, then no one in the world is having a better time right now than Rhianna. Whether it’s backstage dance parties while on her Diamonds tour, jamming out to Kings of Leon in Europe or living it up down in the Barbados at Carnivale, Rhianna is having the time of her life and sharing nearly every step of the way with her 9.1 million followers. And on top of that, what she posts become front page stories on sites like the Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and more. Let the comedians and assholes own Twitter and let whoever wants to own Facebook. Rhianna owns Instagram.

Pharrell – the voice of the summer

No one, and I mean no one, can argue that two songs have essentially dominated the summer. First there was “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk and then there was “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke. I haven’t been to any weddings this summer, but I have to imagine there hasn’t been a wedding in America that didn’t feature both of those songs. And then Elyse went to Europe and reported back that those two songs were everywhere. Besides being incredibly catchy and being incredibly fun to dance to, there is one thing that connects these two songs: Pharrell. Oh and he’s apparently working on Miley Cyrus’ new album, but more on her later.

Sharknado – featuring the return of Steve Sanders

Sharks are scary. Tornadoes are scary. But combined? Movie magic.

Yasiel Puig – Major League Baseball’s savior

Thanks to the dominance of football and growing popularity of the NBA, Major League Baseball has a short window where it has a chance to shine and own the sports world. That window gets shut more and more each year as the NBA Championships creep further into June and Roger Goodell finds ways to make the NFL a year round bundle of fun. Puig, an outfielder for the Dodgers, burst onto the scene like a son of a bitch, rattling off a historic streak and throwing the very expensive, but under performing Dodgers on his back. Even MLB doing something as asinine as not letting Puig into the All Star game could not derail Puig-damonium. With the Biogenesis suspensions being announced this week, MLB needs all the good press it can muster. So far, the majority of that press is coming courtesy of Puig.

The Orange is the New Black – i.e. the show that everyone is talking about

In the “the show that everyone is talking about” category, I wanted to go with The Bridge. I love The Bridge. But unfortunately The Bridge doesn’t seem to be nearly as popular as Orange is the New Black. So Orange gets the nod. It’s also getting the nod from almost every TV critic out there as Netflix’s best show to date- with apologies to House of Cards. Personally, I’ve only watched one episode so far, but from everything I’ve heard- Orange is the New Black is top notch. Finishing the first season is just slightly ahead of “watch Breaking Bad” on my TV to-watch list.

Kevin Cullen – the man to read re: the Whitey Bulger trial

Whether it’s in the Boston Globe or on Twitter, reporter Cullen has been the authority on all things related to the Whitey Bulger trial up in Boston. Whether it’s expounding on the colossal waste of tax-payer money the trial is, laughing at the absurdity of some of the low lifes’ claims on the witness stand or deconstructing Bulger’s self-made reputation as the Robin Hood of Southie, Cullen has been a must read all summer. It won’t be shame when the trial is over and Bulger is sent to jail, but it will be a shame to not read Cullen’s reporting on the subject anymore.

Miley Cyrus – Queen of the Internet

According to Elyse, Billy Ray’s pride and joy is “taking over hip hop and just being Miley.” Miley is in subways twerking. She’s in tattoo parlors twerking. She’s in Big Sean’s new video doing something. Long story short, Miley Cyrus has been everywhere this summer. She started the summer being named hottest girl in the world by Maxim, spent the middle of the summer being name-dropped on Jay Z’s Magna Carta Holy Grail (maybe you’ve heard of it) and is rounding out the summer doing frankly, whatever the hell Miley wants to do. Fair warning to the other contenders: Miley just might be MVP of the entire year.

Other Possible Contenders…

Bryan Cranston: wore a Walt mask to Comic Con, Breaking Bad‘s final episodes, dancing with Stephen Colbert
Jay Z: Magna Carta Holy Grail might have been a flop and the app might know more about you than you do, but it was still one of the most anticipated albums of the year and his tour with Justin Timberlake is getting some pretty great reviews.
Beyonce: Mrs. Jay Z is currently rocking her own successful tour, a tour Questlove declared was “vine-proof” because there was just too much going on.
Icona Pop: wrote that “I Love It Song,” which is great fun. But it should be noted that it came out in 2012.
Matthew Weiner: produced another great season of Mad Men and thanks to the death of James Gandolfini and people going back and binge-watching episodes of The Sopranos got renewed credit for his work on the show.
Amanda Bynes: because self-destructing on Twitter is kind of funny.