Aubrey Plaza stunt helps MTV Movie Awards to big ratings gains

Maybe Aubrey Plaza is on to something with her crazy stunts — the MTV Movie Awards she spectacularly crashed Sunday posted big ratings gains.

The “Parks & Recreation” costar was supposedly tossed from the premises after coming onstage unannounced and trying to grab an award from actor Will Ferrell. But the audience apparently didn’t mind: An average of 3.8-million total viewers tuned in, according to Nielsen.

That was up 11% compared with last year’s show.

In MTV’s core demographic of adults aged 18 to 34, the show did even better, zooming 45%.

Critics often focus on the ribald banter at the show, but PR stunts are maybe just as notable a feature. In 2009, Eminem made headlines by pretending to be outraged by a high-wire stunt that had Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” character landing on the rapper. Confirming the suspicions of many skeptics, the incident was later revealed to be entirely staged.

What did you think of the MTV Movie Awards?

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Twitter: @scottcollinsLAT