The other day we discussed a mental health therapist winning the Jeremy Allen White lookalike contest in Chicago. He called it “the coolest thing I’ve done all week,” which hopefully didn’t negatively affect the mental health of his patients. The contest was one among many that have been happening since late October, when YouTuber Anthony Po organized one seeking Timothee Chalamet doppelgangers in NYC. That event was attended by thousands of Timothees, including the certified original. As more and more contests keep popping up seeking different celeb impersonations, Po wants everyone to know that he’s happy the idea is being copied, because it all helps to serve his dream to “make the internet fun again.”
Anthony Po, a YouTuber with 1.8 million subscribers on the platform, is the man behind the Chalamet contest. Po, who went viral earlier this year for eating a giant jar of Cheese Balls in front of a New York City crowd, anonymously put up flyers around the city advertising the Chalamet contest and didn’t reveal himself as the mastermind until the day of the event.
Since that look-alike contest, there have been others, not hosted by Po, for celebrities including Jeremy Allen White, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Paul Mescal. Soon there will be look-alike competitions for Zendaya twins and the two leads from “Challengers.”
“I think it’s great,” Po told HuffPost on Tuesday about the 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 internet being “super negative” to people spending less time online after they were forced to spend hours there each day during the pandemic lockdowns. He said creators started posting negative content to compete for more views.
He said he’s trying to contribute “positively” to the internet. Even though the look-alike contest happened offline, he said it spread online.
“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 said.
…The Chalament look-alike contest was an overall positive experience, except for the arrests of four people for being at an “unscheduled demonstration,” according to The New York Times. But Po said he’s paying all of the fees they might owe. Matt Mannix, a look-alike who was detained at the event, told Teen Vogue that he received four summons: two for failure to comply with directions from park staff, police officers or park signs; one for disorderly conduct; and one for trespassing. In Po’s YouTube video documenting the event, police told Po he had to leave Washington Square Park, so he led the “Timothee Chalamet Pilgrimage” to a “contingency plan skate park” nearby.
You see, I have no head for business, cause it never would’ve occurred to me to eat a giant jar of Cheese Balls before an audience (something I’ve certainly done in private). So Po is bigly MIFA — Make the Internet Fun Again. I have some thoughts. For starters, since when was the internet horrible for only the past three years? And are we supposed to read some political commentary in his three year timeframe? Cause I hate to break it to him, but I don’t think it’s about to get better next year. I’ll give this kid (and myself) a pass on diving deeper into the logic of planning live events as a way to improve the internet, but I am scratching my head over the reasoning that the internet became horrible when people were spending less time there, after lockdown. Huh? And the notion that lockdown “forced” people to spend time online… my dude, treat yourself to the joy of reading a book!
I will say, as a reader I did appreciate the wonderfully chaotic sentence, “The Chalamet look-alike contest was an overall positive experience, except for the arrests of four people.” Excellent. Though at this point, having organized two large(ish) gatherings in NYC public parks in the span of six months, Po should know that permits are required! He did post a video confirming he’s paying the fines contestants got, for which he’s raising the funds by asking people to buy bracelets made by his mother.
There are many, many things wrong with the internet. This is not one of them, I don’t think. I’ll take any harmless fun I can get.
Liked the joke that Timmy came to his own lookalike contest and came in 3rd.
This was a fun gimmick and a chance for twinks to gather en masse. Don’t overthink Po’s comments about when the internet turned horrible because this generation of influencers judge time very differently. To Po, three years must feel like two decades.
I remember when the internet was dial-up from my dorm room. We played one of those world empire games and you had to make your moves and then wait for each person to dial in, and attack or defend. Fun times.
The person in the header looks more like Paul Mescal than Timothee Chalamet to me but I think Kylie should be the judge of that AND all these Timothy’s Chalamet competitions!😆