Celebrity Lookalike Contests Offer America a Ray of Ridiculous Hope

San Francisco has a long, proud history of hosting park-based lookalike contests focused on unconventionally sexy men. (Hello?! The city has been home to the annual Hunky Jesus contest since the mid-’90s!) In recent months, though, the trend has gone national, with a series of anarchic, unofficial gatherings to reward young men who closely resemble other famous (and usually ratty-faced) men.

In October, a 21-year-old man in full Willy Wonka garb snagged the grand prize of $50 (and an unfeasibly large trophy) at New York’s glorious Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition.

The afternoon was awash with damp hairstyles, pointy cheekbones, creepy mustaches and thirsty, thirsty young ladies looking to land themselves their very own almost-Chalamet. But the most beautiful thing about this very unofficial contest was the sheer, surreal chaos of it all.

The contest was masterminded by YouTuber Anthony Po, motivated by his status as a “less hot Timothée Chalamet.” Po only put up 100 flyers around New York City, and was fairly astonished when 10,000 people showed up — including Timothée Chalamet himself, who was probably just super-excited about going to a place where everyone would assume he wasn’t actually him. (When he finally announced himself, the screams were deafening.)

Po got slapped with a $500 fine, everyone had a good time (except, maybe, the cops) and, well, it looked like so much fun that other cities promptly followed.

“Hmm,” the entire nation seemed to ponder at once, “what slightly rodent-faced hottie should we find lookalikes for in my town?”

The answer for San Francisco was Dev Patel. And so, on Nov. 10, Dolores Park was suddenly inundated with scruff-faced South Asian babes and the (many, many) ladies that love them. A 25-year-old from San Jose named Jaipreet Hundal won, even though, close up, Hundal probably looks more like Adrien Brody than Dev Patel. But who cares?! This was about free, (semi-)wholesome fun in the sun, in the middle of a roiling crapfest of a year.

(Still. Someone should do an Adrien Brody lookalike contest somewhere in the Bay soon, so Hundal can go two-for-two.)

Then, over the weekend in Chicago, it happened again. The home of The Bear decided that it was only right and natural that their lookalike contest should center around Jeremy Allen White. For a few hours, Humboldt Park was a sea of white T-shirts, blue aprons and flagrant cigarette smoking à la Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto.

Finally, one meaty-armed, wonky-faced beefcake emerged triumphant: Ben Shabad, 37, a mental health therapist.

Here he is, true to form, making the entire internet feel better.

Lookalike contests have also popped up overseas. Londoners held a Harry Styles contest in which the majority of participants seemed to be struggling with acute cases of wishful thinking. (Coincidentally, that could also be said of the contestants at the Zayn Malik lookalike contest in Brooklyn on Sunday. Handsome fellas one and all, but literally none of them looked like Malik.)

Plus, Dubliners held a Paul Mescal contest in Ireland. (Paul Mescal is the fella from Gladiator II, All of Us Strangers and Aftersun. Any day now, Americans will start remembering what he looks like.)

Oakland University communications professor Erin Meyers theorized to NPR that lookalike contests appeal to the public on multiple levels. First and foremost, she explained, they present a rare opportunity for young humans to come together in a public space for something other than collective dissent.

“They’re not a protest. They’re not an election rally,” she said. “They’re not things that have been kind of contentious lately. They’re around something that’s a little more fun and they’re very grassroots.”

Meyers also noted that, while women have long felt pressure to keep up with celebrity beauty standards, the concept is reasonably novel for men. Still, Meyers thinks our collective obsession with these lookalike contests will be short-lived.

“The internet is a fickle place and what’s fun and exciting for people today will be forgotten in a few months,” she told NPR. “And maybe they’ll run out of celebrities, I don’t know … Well, we’ll never run out of celebrities.”

Exactly. We owe it to each other as a society to keep these ridiculous competitions going for as long as we possibly can. The end of 2024 has been a much sunnier and sillier time because of them. And thank all of the beautiful ratty-faced men for that.