In other news– the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest on October 27 takes the prize as the second most important election in NYC as of late. Gaining similar levels of publicity as that of the presidential election, the event drew a crowd of hundreds, full of vaguely Timothée-looking guys and very opinionated audience members.
Started by Anthony Po, the same guy behind the August NYC ‘cheeseball man’ extravaganza, the appearance of posters around the city simply advertising the lookalike concert’s $50 cash prize were first popularized with an image of the real Timothée Chalamet passing one on a lamppost. The infamous quasi-influencer/stalker and avid fan, clubchalamet, insisted he would not waste his time showing up to such an event– shocking the internet when he did appear.
As he seemingly went unnoticed in a sea of guys who, apparently, looked too much like him, videos surfaced of him approaching the center of the swarm of attendees and taking off his Clark-Kent-esque mask and hat, accompanied by screams and gasps by the nearby competitors.
Chalamet, perhaps surprisingly, was not the overall winner, and escaped to his car shortly after appearing. The prize, comprised of a gigantic $50 check and a six foot tall trophy, was won by a college student named Miles Mitchell, who appeared dressed in Chalamet’s Wonka costume, complete with his candy briefcase. The judging system seemingly operated on a cheer-loudly-for-your-favorite basis, with the competition reportedly also requiring contestants to demonstrate their French skills and comment on Chalamet’s relationship with Kylie Jenner.
Mitchell’s win was unsurprisingly contested by many. An online fan favorite seems to have been a different Timothée look-alike that was, confusingly, arrested after the appearance of the NYPD in the original location, Washington Square Park. As detailed in the title of this article, police clashes began almost immediately over the non-permit mass gathering in the public park. The police cleared out the event and had the audience move to a second park, during which videos circulated of either Mitchell or a similar Wonka leading the masses down the street. The organizer, Po, was also given a $500 fine for hosting the event without a permit. As for the arrested lookalike, no one seems to know what he did to warrant being led away in handcuffs, with even the NYPD refusing to give specific comment on what crime had occurred.
Po seemed to have fled the scene after the event ended, in his signature fashion, on a penny-farthing bicycle. Other strange occurrences include a red carpet for the contestants laid out under the Washington Square Park arch, a pug in a curly wig, and one girl’s business cards that she had handed out to all the lookalikes. They bore a photo of her face saying “yoo hoo boys,” her email address (timotheespleaseemailme@gmail.com), and asked simply: “Do you want to go on a date with me? I’m dead serious.”
The event has now started a trend of lookalike contests, most successfully being a Paul Mescal contest in Dublin, for which the prize was “€20, or three pints.” Other included one for Dev Patel in California, one for Jeremy Allen White in NYC, and another for Harry Styles in London. Across the internet, many people created mock-up posters bearing a celebrity’s name and “lookalike contest tonight in my bedroom.”
Whether an indicator of true star power or out of the phenomenon of far too many Bushwick guys having the Timothée haircut, the now international trend can hopefully lend us some more fun votes to count.
