The OG look-alike contest was the Timothée Chalamet one held in New York. With flyers cropping up all around the city weeks prior to the event (with fate having it that a picture of the real Chalamet being spotted next to a flyer started cropping up on Twitter), the Big Apple had something even bigger in the works. The event was organised by YouTuber Anthony Po, who had a bet to see if more people would show up for the Chalamet event or a Kai Cenat look-alike competition which he held a day prior. Thousands of attendees, a couple of arrests and an actual Chalamet guest appearance later, and we all already know which competition won in turnout.

But the look-alike phenomenon didn’t end there and then. Since, the viral event has become a global phenomenon, with a Paul Mescal look-alike competition cropping up in Dublin, a Harry Styles one in London, and a Dev Patel one in San Francisco. What’s next? Jacob Elordi in Brisbane? Or Cooper Koch in LA? We’re open to suggestions.

For a multitude of reasons we are all already aware of (“those damn phones!!!” as your elders would say), this generation has lost interest in going “out out,” at least in comparison to previous generations — but the look-alike competition may be defying that statistic. That’s partly because these are free, daytime events, in which everybody attending already has something of a sort in common, making the attendance more inviting than say, a nightclub.

And with socialising, naturally, comes dating. Taking it a step further, look-alike competitions could become the new way of dating. We’ve all lost faith in dating apps, so the only logical solution seems to be a celebrity crush look-alike gathering, which might just be the perfect spot to find your future partner. One attendee went as far as printing her own dating cards to pass around at the event, and documenting the whole thing on her TikTok, of course. Relationship success rates from the look-alike contest are still TBD.

Whether you’re tired of them now or can’t wait to see which look-alike competition will take place next, you have to admit that it’s refreshing to see such a light-hearted and community-building event taking place. Who would have thought Timothée Chalamet and a couple other boy crushes of the month could restore faith in IRL activities in the face of the ever-growing fear of online interactions taking over our lives?