MTV Cribs is the evidence we need that having money definitely doesn’t make you smarter.

The show, which first aired in the early 2000s, followed some of the world’s least self-aware celebrities around their ridiculously large and expensive homes.

The homes were usually an ode to bad taste, and the humblebragging that went on was sometimes enough to make you want to lash out at the TV.

Regardless, the show has had a 17-year-run.

So in commiseration of its longevity, let’s take a look at what The Guardian is calling “the greatest Cribs of all”.

Perhaps the greatest Cribs of all, in which [Ja Rule] showed the crew around a house that wasn’t actually his, and the owner sued him for filming there without permission. The whole episode is like a prequel to the Fyre festival.

In case you’ve somehow forgotten already, Ja Rule went out of vogue in the music industry for a while, before resurfacing as one of the founders of the Fyre Festival.

Yeah, lying about luxury stuff in exchange for money is a bit of a habit for Ja Rule.

Here he is showing MTV around someone else’s house. Apologies for the terrible quality, but this is the best clip we could find:

“It rains and everything, indoors”, followed by a swift cut to the snacks drawer. You can actually see him discovering things as he moves through the property.

No one is that surprised to encounter a fridge in a kitchen.

The Guardian became so caught up in the Ja Rule of it all, that they even posted an image of someone who wasn’t Ja Rule when they first released this story.

So, a fake Ja Rule. You’ve got to love the irony.

It has since been amended with an apology at the end of the article.

There have been some other gems over the years, include Mariah Carey’s sprawling mansion.

How Mariah Carey was Mariah Carey’s house? Well, it had gold doors, aggressively ostentatious lamps, a vast walk-in closet dedicated exclusively to lingerie, a bathroom so serene that Carey has to change outfits before using it, a kitchen with a chaise longue right in the middle of it, and something called a “Mermaid Room” that didn’t contain any mermaids or mermaid-themed decoration. So quite Mariah Carey.

Cool.

The house is so big that the tour had to be filmed in two parts. Check out part two here:

And if you care, here’s 50 Cent’s car collection:

To see a list of more of the best episodes of all time, head here.

[source:guardian]