Lookalike Contest Trend: Here’s Why Everyone’s Obsessed With Them Right Now

Do you look like [insert male celebrity here]? Could you use $50? A lookalike contest may be in your future.

After a YouTuber-hosted contest to find the New York City man who looked most like Timothee Chalamet went viral on social media (leading to a huge event that was attended by Timmy himself), copycats have been popping up all around the world. From a Paul Mescal lookalike contest in Dublin to a Dev Patel lookalike contest in San Francisco, it’s never been a better time to be someone who (kind of, somewhat) looks like a hot, famous dude.

The completely grassroots movement seems to be happening completely organically, and is a rare example of a viral internet moment translating to a IRL event. Here’s everything you need to know, in this edition of TL;DR.

Give me the TL;DR.After a New York City-based contest to find the man who looked most like Timothee Chalamet went viral, similar events to crown lookalikes for a variety of other hot male celebrities are popping up worldwide.

Wait, I need more. What’s the background here?As Glamour reported last month, the NYC Timmy contest first began to spread as a viral Partiful invite online and via posters hung around the city IRL (it turned out that the contest was the brainchild of YouTuber Anthony Po).

The event—which offered a trophy and $50 to the Timmy-est boy of them all—became the rare phenomenon where an internet meme had the same impact in real life. The lookalike contest brought tons of attendees, led to four arrests, and Chalamet himself stopped by.

Since then, grassroots movements to crown similarly exact doppelgangers have been sweeping through the nation and the world.

Just this past week alone, there was a Harry Styles lookalike contest in London…

A Dev Patel lookalike contest which drew “hundreds” in San Francisco…

And a Paul Mescal lookalike contest, where hopefuls came clad in his signature short shorts:

Also, if you’re wondering, there is no grand entity in charge of these contests, and there is no set way to determine a winner besides, it seems, the cheers and thirst of the gathered crowd.

Thus, it is truly a democratic, grassroots election that is essentially pure anarchy. Which is..maybe what we need right now?

What does the internet think?Everyone’s obsessed, of course.

For one, “lookalike contests” are now a meme, with everyone throwing out into the universe that their own personal competitions are now underway. Literally everyone is tweeting how the next [insert hot guy or girl] lookalike contest is soon being held in their bedroom.

Also, I can’t really tell you what the next one of these will be, or where, or if another is occurring. These contests just pop up fully formed from the ether and we shouldn’t question it, we should just enjoy it.

So, why should I care?Well, don’t we all need something stupid to think about right now? Yes, exactly.

Am I going to care about or remember this in two weeks?Maybe. Who knows how long lookalike contests will be coming to bless us. Could be forever, could be as fleeting as an It Boy’s time in the spotlight.