2012 CMA Awards: Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley open with ‘Gangnam Style’

Outside of the actual winners at the CMA Awards, there is also one other thing that most fans of the show traditionally look forward to: the opening monologue featuring frequent hosts Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood. The two are typically game not only to riff on some of the most-popular headlines in music, but also have no problem making fun of each other.

This time around, though, the primary victim of their barbs was none other than someone who has been the target of plenty of jokes as of late: Taylor Swift. They talked about her relationship with Connor Kennedy, and referenced a number of lyrics as a part of her hit song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Thankfully, Taylor seems to be a good sport about such things, even though she and Kennedy did recently break up.

In other news pertaining to the Swift jokes, these two also had a go at current events, said some kind words about the country music community and Hurricane Sandy, and of course took part in one of the most-popular memes of the year in Psy’s “Gangnam Style.” Thus far, the song has been featured everywhere from “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” to “Glee” to “The X Factor” UK. The song has received more than 500 million views on YouTube, far more than any song composed by either of the hosts for the festivities here. (However, they do have far more #1 singles here in America than Psy does.)

What do you think about this monologue, and in your mind does it compare well to some of the other openings that the two have done over the years?