The Chainsmokers are back.
To catch you up: The DJ duo, comprised of Alex Pall and Drew Taggart, announced in February 2020 that they were going on a social media hiatus and "taking some time to create our next chapter in music," deleting every post on their official Instagram account page with the exception of their statement. Since then, the pair have largely kept quiet about their life—until recently when videos starring two men who looked similar to Alex and Drew began popping up on The Chainsmokers' verified TikTok page.
One of the posts featured the two look-alikes reacting to a video with with the hashtag "conspiracy" posted by TikTok user @SUGENE, who joked in it that Alex and Pall "underwent a lot of plastic surgery" during their hiatus and now "look completely different." The Chainsmokers' account wrote in response, "Why would we mess with perfection?"
Meanwhile, another video showed the doppelgängers responding to a claim that it would be "easy" for The Chainsmokers to be replaced with body doubles since they "look like just two regular white guys." The band's account replied, "This conspiracy theory makes no sense."
So, what's the deal with these strange clips? As it turns out, The Chainsmokers were actually in on the fun.
To announce their comeback, it appears that the real Drew and Alex hired the look-alikes to star in a mockumentary about their hiatus. The duo later appeared appeared alongside their doppelgängers in a TikTok video, writing, "when you meet two random white dudes that look like The Chainsmokers."
The band also leaned into the joke by lip-syncing to their new single, "High," in front of a screenshot reading: "Why do The Chainsmokers look different? Plastic surgery rumor."
"This has gone too far," they joked in the caption.
The song is The Chainsmokers' first original track since 2019, when they released their third studio album World War Joy.
Over the weekend, Alex and Drew continued to poke fun of the gag, sharing a screenshot from their official website that requires fans to pick photos of the musicians from a lineup of similar-looking celebrities in a Google reCAPTCHA test. Some of the stars the duo chose as their look-alikes include Michael Phelps, Tom Brady and Property Brothers' Jonathan and Drew Scott.
They quipped in the caption, "Do you have what it takes???"