Today in “Was James Franco Busy?” news, James Van Der Beek is playing Diplo in Viceland’s first-ever scripted comedy series, What Would Diplo Do?
That sentence could use some unpacking.
James Van Der Beek is an actor best known for Dawson’s Creek, Don’t Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23, and having a silly cry-face. Diplo is a Grammy-winning DJ who’s worked with everyone from Beyoncé to Robyn. Van Der Beek, who first impersonated Diplo in a promo for the “Mad Decent Block Party,” will play a “fictional version of the international musical force [in a] collection of parables about life as told through the eyes of guy who can bring 60,000 people to their feet, but kind of sucks one-on-one,” according to a press release. What Would Diplo Do? is described as Louie meets “WorldStar HipHop” meets This Is Spinal Tap, which I’m going to let marinate for a second.
Van Der Beek, who will write, produce, and act as showrunner, said, “I’ve enjoyed deconstructing my own image quite a bit over the years, but to have the chance to do it with a global megastar like Diplo who’s letting us to do something fun and ridiculous that few people have the balls to allow is crazy.”
What Would Diplo Do? is slated to debut in 2017, assuming this isn’t all a really weird drug trip. Which, considering Vice is involved, is still possible.
