Our modern lives are drenched in intensity. Sometimes it feels as if there isn’t a way to escape the darker realities. Of course, there is a time and a place for these discussions, but have we forgotten to hold time and place for good natured fun? The Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest that took place last Sunday in Washington Square Park gives me a glimmer of hope that we haven’t. We all saw the cryptic posters advertising this contest spread throughout downtown. Whether in person or online, the buzz around this event could be felt throughout the city. On the surface, it’s pretty simple in nature, but at its core, it taught us a lot about community and human nature as a whole.  

This isn’t the first event of its kind. In fact, youtuber Anthony Po was the mastermind behind the elusive “cheeseball man,” so it’s no surprise he was the one behind the lookalike competition as well. Along with him, Instagram content creator Tamir Omari (@tamiromari) aided in facilitating this afternoon of zaniness. “There’s something so fun about bringing people together on something that is so incredibly benign,” Tamir told me. A native New Yorker himself, he added that the contest was “So at the heart of everything about the city, a spontaneous side-quest that everyone gets involved in.” A gathering of, essentially strangers, for something so silly couldn’t happen anywhere else but here. Another New Yorker I talked to agreed with this sentiment. Miles Mitchell, the Staten Island native and winner of the lookalike competition weighed in on this, saying “I think it shows how unserious and unhinged NYC is.”  

This importance in not taking life so seriously is something that came through in every interview I did. Living in a time charged with so much information and so much debate can make us feel like there’s no room to take a step back and let ourselves enjoy something, but as stated by Miles “I think life needs to have a lot of unserious moments like this… like the cheese ball eating contest” he went on to talk about how both that and the lookalike contest have created a means to usher in a renaissance of positive community gathering, stating “I think it does open the door, with how much media coverage this event got, with barely any marketing, it’s opening up opportunity for people to hold events without putting a lot of money into them.” Alex Massarotti, a sophomore at Pace added to this, stating “Everything is so high stakes right now and it can be really hard to just enjoy life…this is what that was…all these people showed up to mess around and have a good time.” 

I’ve always been fascinated by celebrity culture, and I think in many ways this event taught us a lot about this as well. Being the winner, Miles had an interesting perspective on all of this, “I felt like I got a glimpse of what it’s like to be a celebrity, there’s cameras in front of your face and you’re swarmed with so many people.” He’s not wrong, in fact when Chalamet himself showed up he was immediately swarmed. It is interesting to think about a gathering in which a bunch of people go to look at a bunch of people that look like someone else. “It definitely also says a lot about how we obsess over people we deem as celebrities,” said Alex. It was fascinating to see the combining of a parasocial world and the real one in such a tangible way. Pace freshmen Bella and Callie who were standing right next to Timothée stated “The craziest part for us is we felt like we broke the fourth wall.” While I believe all this to be true, I think the big takeaways from this event don’t have anything to do with Timothée Chalamet at all. 

In this anxiety ridden and contentious world, sometimes frivolous pursuits are just what we need. There is something serious at the core of this otherwise “unserious” event. This past Sunday highlighted the importance and need for community. We need to allow ourselves the time and the energy to do things that do nothing but make us feel good and laugh. There was no real incentive for anyone to attend this event (except the one comically large fifty-dollar check), yet it brought people in by the thousands. Alex told me, “I think the whole thing was really just a breath of fresh air. The world is not a happy place and it’s easy to feel a burden. If even just for a day something is as stupid and funny as this is, I think it provides a lot of people with relief. The whole thing felt very human.” As silly and benign as it may seem, something like the Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest provided us with a semblance of sanity that we need in this modern world.