The Timothée Chalamet look-alike competition morphed New York City into an absurdist circus

“I get catcalled, ‘Timmy! Timmy! Timmy!’ I respond to it. I call to it. This is fate.”

That’s what 18-year-old Dempsey Bobbitt tells us as we’re power walking alongside a hoard of hormonal Timothée Chalamet fans to Mercer Playground, where a look-alike competition for the actor is underway. Bobbitt is one of several curly-haired, high-cheekboned Chalamet wannabees hoping to be crowned Chalamet’s doppelgänger and take home a $50 cash prize. He’s pretty serious about winning, considering that he’s dressed as Willy Wonka, who Chalamet plays in the 2023 eponymous film “Wonka.” Bobbitt also traveled to the Big Apple from Pennsylvania (“I go to school in Pennsylvania,” he says).   

Following the initial brouhaha of Halloween weekend (dubbed “Halloweekend”), New York City is bustling Sunday afternoon as crowds of Gen-Z spectators trek to Washington Square Park to attend the event. The contest, organized by 23-year-old YouTuber Anthony “Gilbert” Po (a.k.a. AnthPo), went viral across social media in September after fliers for the event were seen scattered across Lower Manhattan. An online invite, made on Partiful, boasted nearly 3,000 RSVPs.

A Timothée Chalamet look-alike is presented at the competition (Photo by Joy Saha)Underneath the Washington Square Arch, the crowd is multiplying by the minute and the crispness of the October air tempers the surrounding adrenaline. It’s fitting that a park known for its man-on-the-street ambush-type interviews and random impromptu performances is a breeding ground for this disheveled competition. 

Hand in hand, we parcel through the countless thousands congested under the archway. Sprinkled through the crowd like “Where’s Waldo” are the Chalamet look-alikes, reporters clambering to grab interviews and eventgoers enraptured with the allure of the Timmy variants. Unbeknownst to us though, the real Chalamet, incognito in a mask and baseball hat, slithers through the crowd like an undetected chosen one, or like his character, Lisan al Gaib in “Dune.”

“Hey man, what’s up?” he says to one of the awestruck look-alikes.

Fans hold up signs in hopes of catching the attention of a Timothée Chalamet look-alike (Photo by Joy Saha)Excitement soon turns into panic when a line of New York City Police Department squad cars — their sirens blaring and lights flashing — arrive behind the arch. NYPD officers and the city’s Parks Enforcement Patrol break into the crowd, arresting four individuals (including a Chalamet look-alike) and telling people to leave the park for gathering without a permit. 

“You are unlawfully assembled. You have to leave!” a patrol officer says before slapping Po with a $500 fine.

That doesn’t stop Po from staging his competition. In an act of defiance — armed with a microphone, a towering trophy and a comically large handwritten check — Po leads the crowd a few blocks downtown to Mercer Playground.

The swarms of people walking the streets of New York invite several passersby and onlookers to join out of sheer curiosity. The playground itself is quite small, but people make do by sitting on the ground and standing on the sides of the barricades.  

Po explains the rules for the contest. Each Chalamet wannabee will come to the front and introduce themselves. Audience members will then gauge their resemblance to the real Chalamet with enthusiastic cheers or loud “boos.”

Some Chalamets are dressed simply, instead relying on their sharp jawlines, floppy brown hair and good looks to secure them a spot in the finals. A few Chalamets go the extra mile to dress up as the A-list actor’s most famed characters.

Spectators at the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest (Photo by Joy Saha)“This is the real deal. This is straight from the factory,” Bobbitt quips about his chocolatier getup. The college student’s mousey brown hair, wide eyes and grin are somewhat similar to Chalamet’s, but not an exact match. His top hat and maroon coat, however, resemble Chalamet’s version of Wonka.

Though Bobbitt, “can’t go one day without people asking me to [be Chalamet],” it’s not like he’s a large fan of the Academy Award nominee. “I’m OK with [Chalamet],” he tells us.

When we ask him if he’s seen any of Chalamet’s movies, he says, “No. I can name them.”

“I know the peach scene in ‘Call Me By Your Name.’ I wish I didn’t.”

Like all the other Chalamets scattered through the crowd, Bobbitt is having a great time. “I think I got the golden ticket,” he says.

The best Timothée Chalamet look-alike wins a $50 cash prize (Photo by Joy Saha)We hound down another Wonka look-alike. This time, Miles Mitchell, 21, shares the secret behind his eerily on-point costume. With a red paisley-printed scarf around his neck, Mitchell even has a briefcase full of chocolate in hand to share. He pieced together the outfit himself: “I went to Goodwill. Although the jacket came from Amazon, everything else was from Goodwill.”

Mitchell admits that Chalamet’s “Wonka” isn’t his favorite film in the “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” franchise, but still enjoyed it. He says he much prefers “Dune” and “Dune Two.”  

The native New Yorker says his friends pushed him to sign up because he is also from the city like the Hell’s Kitchen-born Chalamet: “I think he’s cool. We have some things in common a little bit.”

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Mitchell is up against a pretty convincing Paul Atreides, 22-year-old Zander Dueve. He howls “Dune Two’s” “Lisan al-Gaib” chant every chance he gets and it’s hilarious. The competition between these two Timmys is neck and neck. The crowd roars for the two like they’re the real Chalamet.

But the competition hits a lull when they want to sell off their handful of Chalamet look-alikes to the adoring women-dominated audience. Po calls up several women to participate in a makeshift dating show. Only 40 minutes into the competition and now it is beginning to feel like a lucid dream. It’s a haze that features four women shilling themselves out for a hot date with a Chalamet. It’s a lot like the ‘00s comedy, “Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!” except nobody is self-aware about the weird vibes. 

One of the Chalamets, the Australian-born Callum Foote, a Columbia graduate student, lives for female attention. He eventually chooses Sommer Mae Campbell, a 23-year-old actor and movie theatre employee from New Jersey, as his best, makeshift match. She’s holding a “Hiii Timothees” sign in her hands and handing out business cards like it’s a networking event. There’s a sense of awkwardness and frazzled energy surrounding the crowd. Maybe it’s cause matchmaking the Chalamets with fans feels forced like a stan Twitter, parasocial delusion. 

But thankfully, the excruciating dating show concludes just as abruptly as it begins. Nearly 50 minutes after vacating Washington Square Park, the four police arrests and the real Chalamet showing up to the party, the look-alike is crowned.

Miles Mitchell, 21, wins the Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest (Photo by Joy Saha)Excitement builds again because finally, someone will take home the erected $250 gold statute. Po urges the crowd to pick their crowned prince, and the crowd rumbles with enthusiasm for Mitchell and Dueve. Dueve shares he would take his girlfriend out on a date with his winnings. On the other hand, Mitchell, in character, says, “I would buy more chocolate to give to everyone!”

It comes to no surprise when Mitchell wins the competition. His Chalamet adjacent looks and chocolate costume is just enough to put him over the threshold. The audience even cheers, “Wonka! Wonka! Wonka!” when he wins.

Sure, the Chalamet look-alike competition was ridiculous. And it probably was an absolute nuisance for nearby residents who had to hear the high-pitched screams and horny cries of thirsty Chalamet fans. But at its core, the event was a testament to how unserious Gen-Z (often hailed as the most unserious and chronically online generation) can truly be. Chalamet — who was previously declared a “Cinnamon Roll Man” and the internet’s favorite “white boy of the month” — is the epitome of Gen Z cool and continues to be the generation’s favorite heartthrob. So having a competition solely dedicated to him, in which thousands of ogling fans and hopeful look-alikes traveled both near and far to attend, is incredibly Gen-Z coded.

“Our generation is soooo funny I love us,” commented one TikTok user under a video posted by Nicolas “Nico” Heller (a.k.a. “New York Nico”) that recapped the competition. “This is so unserious I love it,” said user commented.

Throughout the event, we couldn’t help but feel a sense of camaraderie amongst the crowd, even as we fought for our lives to keep up with the Chalamet look-alikes and avoid being trampled by crazed spectators. We saw people making new friends, hyping each other up to approach one of the Chalamets and forget about the struggles of modern-day dating, even if it was just for a few hours.

That’s the beauty of a Chalamet look-alike competition.