When James Franco stopped by 'The Late Show With David Letterman' this week, the host just had to ask: What the heck is up with his nearly nude Instagram photo?

Franco, who posted a NSFW shot of himself in boxers with his hand down his pants (which he later deleted), defended -- and attempted to explain -- himself the best that he could.

"To me, it's just a fun thing. It's something I don't put a lot of thought into," he said. "But, it gets a lot of attention. I have a lot of followers on Instagram."

While the actor has more 2 million followers on the photo sharing app, that doesn't necessarily mean that's what the fans want to see -- although Franco tends to disagree on that point.

"It's what the people want," he told Letterman. "If you don't want to see it, don't follow me."

He also went on to compare the NSFW selfie to Britney Spears shaving her head.

"Like that Britney Spears shaved head moment, where it's sort of like, 'All right, you want me? Here you can have me, but I am going to be really ugly.' You know what I mean?" (Quote via PEOPLE.)

Hmmm. While we don't really agree with James Franco's Instagram antics (including the fact that he hit on a 17-year-old girl via the social network) it's clear he enjoys the provocative nature of it -- and probably isn't going to stop any time soon.

PopCrushers, what do you think of James Franco's explanation?

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