Because the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest on the finish of October, during which an estimated 2,000 folks confirmed up at a Manhattan park, together with the namesake himself, a number of iterations of the competition have popped up everywhere in the world.
Anthony Po, a YouTuber with 1.8 million subscribers on the platform, is the person behind the Chalamet contest. Po, who went viral earlier this 12 months for consuming an enormous jar of Cheese Balls in entrance of a New York Metropolis crowd, anonymously put up flyers across the metropolis promoting the Chalamet contest and didn’t reveal himself because the mastermind till the day of the occasion.
Since that look-alike contest, there have been others, not hosted by Po, for celebrities together with Jeremy Allen White, Harry Kinds, Zayn Malik and Paul Mescal. Quickly there will likely be look-alike competitions for Zendaya twins and the 2 leads from “Challengers.”
“I think it’s great,” Po instructed HuffPost on Tuesday concerning the look-alike look-alike contests. “Ultimately, at the heart of what I’m trying to do is just make the internet fun again. I think the internet is absolutely horrible right now, and it has been for probably about three years, ever since right at the tail end of COVID.”
He equates the web being “super negative” to folks spending much less time on-line after they had been compelled to spend hours there every day throughout pandemic lockdowns. He stated creators began posting detrimental content material to compete for extra views.
He stated he’s making an attempt to contribute “positively” to the web. Regardless that the look-alike contest occurred offline, he stated it unfold on-line.
“We know [the events are] funny and interesting enough, and people want community events and fun things to talk about, so they’ll spread through the internet and then we’ll get a big crowd, and people are starting to figure that out,” he stated. “Unfortunately, brands are starting to figure that out, so that’s a little bit less fun.”
Po stated he couldn’t keep in mind which look-alike contest was hosted by a model. The Mescal look-alike contest featured a test with a Lidl emblem on it, however based on The Guardian, the grocery retailer was not behind the occasion.
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The Chalamet look-alike contest was an total constructive expertise, aside from the arrests of 4 folks for being at an “unscheduled demonstration,” based on The New York Occasions. However Po stated he’s paying the entire charges they could owe. Matt Mannix, a look-alike who was detained on the occasion, instructed Teen Vogue that he obtained 4 summons: two for failure to adjust to instructions from park employees, cops or park indicators; one for disorderly conduct; and one for trespassing. In Po’s YouTube video documenting the occasion, police instructed Po he needed to go away Washington Sq. Park, so he led the “Timothée Chalamet Pilgrimage” to a “contingency plan skate park” close by.
Regardless that the occasions have been primarily constructive, folks on social media are already bracing for some negativity at Wednesday’s Zendaya look-alike contest in Oakland, California, her hometown. On-line and offline spectators have been comparatively well mannered towards the lads who’ve entered the contests, however girls sometimes face crueler judgment on-line. Po, nevertheless, thinks individuals are “looking for something to be negative about.”
“I think if it happens, it’s a conversation to be had, but I think fearmongering about it beforehand is a prime example of people just take things too seriously,” he instructed HuffPost, and may’t simply take pleasure in issues. “I like to give the benefit of the doubt to people.”
“Despite [the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest] being chaotic,” he added, “it was just good. I think people in real life aren’t going to do something horrible. I think maybe on the internet, people might pick it apart, but I don’t think that’s the case in real life.”
