Sarah Silverman has admitted her jokes about Britney Spears at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) were "unfortunate"

Sarah took to the stage after Britney's widely-panned performance of 'Gimme More' and told the audience the singer, who was 25 at the time, had already “accomplished everything she’s ever going to accomplish in her life”.

She then said: "She’s a mother. It’s a crazy. It’s weird to think that just a few years ago on this very show she was this, like, sweet, innocent, little girl in sl**** clothes riding around with a python.”

Sarah went on to dub Britney and Kevin's sons, Sean, now 15, and Jayden, 14, "the most adorable mistakes you will ever see” before making a graphic joke about the 'Womanizer' singer's private parts.

And after the clip went viral on Twitter in the wake of the documentary about the troubled star, Sarah has spoken out and insisted she "had no idea" that Britney's performance beforehand hadn't been great.

She tweeted: "I was known then 4 roasts. MTV asked me to mini-roast Britney after her big performance.

“While she was performing I was having diarrhea & going over my jokes. Had no idea she didn’t kill. Unfortunate. Art changes over yrs as we know more & the world changes.(sic)"

Sarah faced criticism for the gags at the time and insisted shortly after the ceremony that it had "never occurred" to her that people would find her material "hurtful".

She said: "The joke that everyone was upset about — me calling the kids ‘adorable mistakes’ — was the most innocuous joke.

"It never occurred to me that would be deemed hurtful or over the line. I don’t want to get into feuds with girls half my age. I’m in it to be funny and not for the drama. It’s embarrassing.”