Nothing makes me sadder than seeing Justin Bieber sad.

Come on, you guys. Beliebers. Look at that poor pouty face. Look at that perfectly sculpted tricep. Look at that extremely lucky blanket. You can tell just by looking at him that he's God's favorite child. So why is Justin Bieber so sad-faced? Well, dude is EXHAUSTED.  This Most Share-Worthy VMA Video race has turned into a super-marathon, and he and One Direction are currently locked in a dead heat, with over 40 million Twitter votes cast amongst them. In case you just switched from dial-up and are now re-experiencing the entire Internet, One Direction's squeaking out a lead over Bieber by a slim half-million votes. Which means Bieber's waging a RELENTLESS Twitter campaign that involves rallying his faithful Beliebers to vote for him, and, in what may be a viral marketing move designed to mobilize the last remaining Biebers on Earth to tweet their vote for him (am I just reading into this?), he's tweeted not two but three shirtless photos (as well as a cheeky and hilarious self-referential shirtless nod to Mark Wahlberg) and revealed a new tattoo. Justin Bieber is NOT AFRAID TO TAKE OFF HIS SHIRT in the name of a VMA. So you should really vote for him, or else who knows what he'll take off and Twitpic next. Or wait... You should vote for him, and he should do that anyway. I'm not biased. I'm just stating a fact that I see him: Homie's COMMITTED to winning this thing. And you've gotta respect his willingness to take his top off.

You can vote for the Most Share-Worthy Video right up until the show, so keep voting (and Justin, please keep taking off your shirt), and tune in to the VMA Pre-Show at 7 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. CT to see who wins.

Don't miss the 2012 MTV VMAs live from Staples Center in Los Angeles on Thursday, Sept. 6, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Photo credit: @JustinBieber