WTF: P Diddy claims to be a series regular on upcoming season of “Downton Abbey” — UPDATES!
by Samuel Tolzmann on May 15, 2013
In a piece of hip-hop news even weirder than that time last summer when Snoop Dogg died and Snoop Lion rose like a rastafoenix from his ashes, rapper Sean Combs, aka Diddy, better known to most by former noms du rap P Diddy (to those born in the early ’90s) and/or Puff Daddy (to everyone older than that) — better known to Forbes as “the wealthiest man in the hip-hop world” — announced today via Twitter that he would be joining the cast of Downton Abbey, the sudsy British period melodrama about first-world problems that has been tepidly received in the U.K. and become the center of a fervent cult in the U.S. Diddy has been building up to the announcement all day with tweets like, “How many of y’all out there are Downton Abbey fans?”
Here is the text of his announcement tweet in full:
“MY BIG NEWS: So happy to announce that Im a series regular on DOWNTON ABBEY-my favorite show+i’ll be debuting a sneak peek tonight 12am PST!”
He also posted this photo, posted to Instagram: http://instagram.com/p/ZWTT75plzr/ AND YOU GUYS his Twitter/Instagram avatar is the Downton Abbey logo. This sounds too good to be true!
“If that sounds too good to be true,” remarked Vulture‘s Amanda Dobbins today, “that is because it is ‘simply not,’ according to PBS.” (#burn) “Diddy, meanwhile,” continued Dobbins, “is still retweeting various congratulation posts, as if this is really a thing….”
Apparently he intends to play the show’s first black character, described on Wikipedia as “jazz musician and singer Jack Ross, who will ignite some race-related controversy” (OMG PLEASE LET HIM TAKE LADY EDITH’S VIRGNITY) — a role the show’s creators have confirmed does indeed exist. But he’s not played by Diddy; he’s portrayed instead by some guy named Gary Carr, who is definitely black but also definitely not the wealthiest man in the hip-hop world. Psh. Downton Abbey probably isn’t even his fave show. Clearly there was one right man for this part, and clearly that man has been robbed. I say let Diddy pull the Kanye and show up to set anyway to set things right by simply standing in front of Carr and speaking the dialogue himself. Evidently he’s already got the wardrobe. NME also points out that “[t]he rapper has previous acting experience, appearing in episodes of Hawaii Five-0 and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and also starring in the TV version of the Broadway play A Raisin In The Sun in 2008.”
Then again, maybe PBS is just playing decoy because they wanted Diddy to be a surprise and he let the cat out of the bag. Stranger things have happened in a world where Beyonce’s baby bump folds just like fabric. “Does fabric not fold?” Is Diddy not a series reg on Downton Abbey? Only Diddy and PBS and everyone involved with Downton Abbey and everyone they know and everyone Diddy knows and everyone following all those people on various social media platforms know for certain….
We’ll be sure to keep you abreast of this breaking crisis as more reports trickle in and Diddy continues to insist on the veracity of his claims via Twitter. This is some next-level Amanda Bynes shit. Perhaps tomorrow at midnight he’ll announce he has been appointed the new Acting Director of the Internal Revenue Service?
UPDATE: Diddy was repping a Funny Or Die spoof of Downton Abbey, in which he appeared. Alas, he is neither delusional, genuinely trolling, or actually on Downton Abbey. The “sneak peek” to be unveiled at midnight was the sketch video itself. Eh, I would link you to it, but it isn’t funny, so…die?
P.S. TRIVIA: “Gary Carr volunteered as a teacher in Mombasa Kenya for 2 weeks.” A Feb!
Image courtesy of QuickMeme via BrooklynVegan.
