In defense of the many media outlets—including this one—that took Sean “Diddy” Combs’ announcement that he was changing his name to Brother Love at face value, it’s 2017. Andy fucking Kaufman would have had a hard time telling jokes from sincerity in this environment. Anyway, Diddy took to Instagram last night to deliver his “gotcha” in the form of a video, shot in selfie mode in what looks like a very well-manicured backyard. “Ladies and gentlemen, today I came to the conclusion that you can not play around with the internet,” he begins, going on to say, “due to not wanting there to be any confusion…I was just joking. Okay? I didn’t change my name. It’s just part of one of my alter egos. One of my alter egos is love.”
He further clarified that, should you happen to meet him at a press junket or on the street, “if you still want to call me love, you can call me love, baby. But I was only playing.” The news is being hailed as a victory by wrestling fans, who rallied behind Bruce Prichard, a former WWE personality who managed The Undertaker as an exaggerated, red-faced televangelist character with the name “Brother Love” back in the late ‘80s. Prichard even offered to wrestle Diddy on TMZ earlier today, saying, “I would do anything to wrestle with Diddy—anytime, any place.”