Sofa Snark: Tom Cruise Gets 'Risky' on MTV

James Sims is the Editor-in-Chief of TalkTVWorld.com and Senior Editor of BroadwayWorld.com. Sofa Snark is an ongoing critical blog focusing on all aspects of show business, from television entertainment to Broadway offerings and general pop culture.  This column also appears on the Huffington Post and SofaSnark.com.  Follow James on Twitter @simsjames for daily show business links, musings and a bit of snark.

Tom Cruise is never a name I thought would pop up on this blog, as the actor conjures thoughts of lunacy and madness in my head. From his Scientology hullabaloo to his rough antics in Hollywood, Cruise fell off of my radar post "Interview with the Vampire," although he was waning even before then. However, there is one iconic moment in Cruise's film career that stands out to this day, and that's his dancing to Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll." That scene in "Risky Business" showing Cruise in his tighty-whities sliding across his parent's living room floor. It's a classic, before and after the PR nightmare that is the real life Cruise.

MTV knew just how iconic that "Risky Business" scene was, and decided to capitalize on it in a promotion for the upcoming MTV Movie Awards, airing June 6. While the MTV demographic, whatever that might be nowadays, might have written Cruise off as a Hollywood loon, the promo spot is a fantastic use of viral video techniques. It shows Cruise, dressed as his "Tropic of Thunder" character Les Grossman, chastising the character from "Risky Business," forcing him to take off his pants in order to make the "Rock and Roll" scene work. Basically, it's Funny or Die with a MTV twist. Check it out.