Are you seeing double?

What is the next best thing to meeting your favourite famous person? For those partaking in the Paul Mescal lookalike contest in Dublin, the answer is obvious: dressing up as them.

According to Forbes, following a TikTok promotion garnering 300,000 views, young hopeful Irish men gathered in Smithfield Square in Dublin on Thursday afternoon, taking pains to emulate Mescal by donning short Gaelic football shorts, a jacket or sweater, and wired earbuds - much like the Gladiator II actor himself. The ultimate prize? Twenty euros (or three pints). As Metro UK reports, Jack Wall O'Reilly walked away with top honours after reciting Mescal's lines from his role in Normal People, matching his fashion and mannerisms and even nailing the way the actor stands.

In case you are pondering whether all this effort is worth 20 euros or three pints, this ultimate bonus prize is sure to sway you: short shorts. When it comes to fashion, no actor has done more for the male short shorts than Mescal himself, if online trends are any indication. Mescal tends to favour Irish athletic wear company O'Neills, and the Irish Independent reports that representatives from the brand were on hand at the event to distribute a few pairs of free short shorts.

String of contests

The Mescal competition is by no means the lone male celebrity lookalike contest that has spawned this month. A slew of male lookalike contests are set to take place in November. The celebrities in question? Jeremy Allen White of The Bear, One Direction stars Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, as well as Monkey Man actor Dev Patel.

Just like the Mescal contest in Dublin, the prizes to be won fall more under the token category than any substantial financial gain. The Patel contest, slated to take place in San Francisco on Monday, will see the winner walk away with $50 and a statue of Monkey Man, a nod to Patel's film of the same name, which was released in April this year.

In addition, Washington Square Park in New York will play host to the White lookalike contest on November 17, dangling a prize of two packs of cigarettes and a seven-day Metro Card for the subway to entice the lucky winner. Later that day, the Zayn Malik lookalike contest, organised by an Instagram user, will take place at Maria Hernandez Park in Brooklyn. The grand prize? A free tattoo. Organisers set up an online invitation for the Malik on Partiful, an event planning app. Evidently enticed by the prospect of a free tattoo in exchange for displaying their resemblance to Malik, 342 people have marked themselves as "going."

The Styles contest, meanwhile, took place in London's Soho Square on Saturday - but with an added twist: not only were prizes up for grabs for the top three lookalikes, but there was also a little giveaway for the worst entrant.

What started it all

Just what has prompted this latest trend of male lookalike contests? You may be wondering if it is a hangover from Halloween, in which case, you are sadly mistaken, because it has nothing to do with fancy dress and everything to do with another male actor who sets hearts pounding: Dune star Timothée Chalamet.

A Chalamet lookalike contest took place on October 27 in Washington Square Park in New York (not incidentally, the location that will host the White contest later this month.) The Chalamet competition had a grand prize of $50, which was all the motivation required to draw in hundreds of attendees and dozens of young men dressed up as Chalamet's best-known roles, including Willy Wonka and Paul Atreides. So far, so mundane - until Chalamet himself rocked up to mingle and pose for pictures with doppelgangers, proving to be the high-ticket factor that turned a minor gathering into a viral moment.

Chalamet's presence spawned widespread chaos, a $500-fine for holding "an unpermitted costume contest", and fans across the globe going into a frenzy reposting photos of Chalamet at his own lookalike contest.

Chalamet, of course, did not walk away with the coveted $50 prize. That accolade was reserved for 21-year-old Miles Mitchell, who dressed as Wonka, and posed with the man himself in a picture that has delighted Chalamet fans. The event was organised by YouTuber, Anthony Po, who is no stranger to viral stunts (although whether or not he anticipated Chalamet crashing his own lookalike contest is another story.) In April, Po attracted hundreds of New Yorkers to watch him eat a jar of cheeseballs. Cheeseballs, however, pale in comparison to a real live celebrity sighting.

The Chalamet contest resulted in not just a viral moment and a large fine, but also police presence. According to Teen Vogue, at least one person was detained and subsequently released with a court summons for charges relating to disorderly conduct and trespassing.

So far, it remains to be seen whether the male stars that the upcoming lookalike contests are based on will, in effect, pull a Chalamet. To the chagrin of fans, Mescal did not sneak into the Dublin event. Will White, Malik, and Patel follow suit? We will find out soon enough.