What Would Diplo Do?: James Van Der Beek Mocks Diplo With the DJ's Consent

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who worship the ground Diplo walks on, and people who are wrong.

James Van Der Beek is taking on the hilariously complicated process of turning real-life DJ, producer, singer and songwriter Thomas Wesley Pentz (better known by his stage name Diplo) into a caricature of himself in Viceland's new series What Would Diplo Do?

The problem with satirizing a real person though? You have to be careful you're not going to seriously piss them off in the process. Luckily for this show, it doesn't sound like Diplo is going to get precious about being turned into a joke.

"The only way to do a show like this is if somebody is completely game," Van Der Beek told reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. "He is so confident in his ability that he's just allergic to taking himself seriously."

James Van Der Beek to Play Diplo in Viceland's First Scripted Series

One would hope he's game, considering the show takes a pretty harsh look at the kind of person Diplo might have been if someone had simply blended all the douchey parts of him together and then amplified them by a thousand. In the first look at the series so far, Van Der Beek's Diplo is not a hero you'd ever, EVER want to meet.

Van Der Beek isn't nervous about offending the real life subject of the show though, since he had to go through the same thing when playing a satirical version of himself on Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23.

"When I did Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23 I told [executive producer] Nahnatchka Khan, 'Don't ever be afraid to insult me. You have to go with what's funniest,'" Van Der Beek said.

That's apparently the avenue they've taken with What Would Diplo Do? with Diplo's total consent. We'll have to see just how game Diplo is after they spend an entire season mercilessly mocking him.

What Would Diplo Do? premieres Monday, August 3rd at 10/9c on Viceland