“It’s a Jack-off,” someone yelled out at Meridian Hill Park last week as hundreds gathered at the Jack Schlossberg look-alike contest squeezed in to take a peek at their potential future husband. 

After photos of a flyer for a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest in New York circulated on X, formerly known as Twitter, last month which attracted more than a thousand people who showed up at Washington Square Park, including Chalamet himself, celebrity look-alike contests have spread across the country. The look-alike saga finally arrived to the District last week as a baby Jack, a GW Jack and 14 total Jacks competed in a matchup for holding a resemblance of Schlossberg, the 31-year-old grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, who is adored for his genetically swooped brunette hair, tall lean build and sharp chin.

Contest organizers Georgia Parolski and Ruchika Sharma, both 2019 GW alumni, said they decided to host a Schlossberg look-alike contest because he is the “people’s princess” and that it would be too “cringe” to have a senator look-alike contest in D.C. The two said they didn’t expect more than 20 attendees and a handful of Jacks to show up for the contest, originally meant to be held in Dupont Circle. 

At exactly 2 p.m. Parolski and Sharma asked the Schlossberg-hopefuls to stand before a statue of a seated former president James Buchanan. But only five Jacks appeared on the makeshift stage as hundreds of spectators watched. The organizers peered into the crowd preying on the tall, white, male onlookers threatening to cold call participants if more Jacks didn’t volunteer. 

“I’m gonna start picking people,” Parolski said to the crowd.

Parolski pointed at two tall brunette white guys in the crowd and asked if they wanted in. The two Jacks hand-plucked from the audience ran up to the stage with applause in tow while a couple more Jacks rolled in late. 

One contestant was even selected from his jog in the park’s trail after one of the organizers shouted, “I see a brunette white man over there.” The man, now a Jack, said he didn’t know who Schlossberg was but agreed to participate in the contest anyway.

The Jacks varied in height, ranging from 5’2″ to 6’2″ but were all varying shades of brunette. Almost all of the Jacks wore a signature outfit of Schlossberg’s, a white button-up top and tie, while two Jacks, one a baby, opted for Schlossberg’s shirtless backward cap combo. 

After the applause had come to a halt, the 14 contestants began going down the line one by one introducing themselves and letting the audience know if they were single or not. Schlossberg-ers in the crowd held up signs, like “I’m single” and “God gave you everything but our numbers,” while Jacks who said they were taken were met with boos from the crowd.

“I did not come here to compete, I came here to husband shop,” one of the Jacks pulled from the audience said in his introduction to the crowd.

Next, after a bit of deliberation from the organizers and applause from the audience, seven Jacks were asked to remain on the stage. A round of Kennedy trivia began, weeding out participants without intimate knowledge of the Kennedy family.

After some more audience applause for their favorite Jacks, the top four Jacks — which included GW junior Sierra Hanash — were selected based on that applause and the rejected Jacks bowed their way off the stage. The hosts then launched into the final round of rigorous tests, where contestants were asked to show the audience their best Australian accent, a nod to Schlossberg’s habit of speaking like an Australian.

The contestants then had 15 seconds each to explain what it means to be the “people’s princess,” as Schlossberg is often called in reference to the public admiration he receives similar to that of the late Princess Diana. 

Organizers then hovered over each Jack’s head and paused for audience applause to determine a winner based on the level of noise from the crowd. The crowd chanted “Jack, Jack, Jack,” as organizers deliberated.

An organizer went down the line of the four Jacks hovering over each contestant with a black tiara and garnering applause from the audience as he drifted over their favorite Jacks. Finally, the organizer placed the coveted black tiara over the people’s princess: Daniel Bonomo, a 25-year-old graduate student studying foreign affairs at Georgetown University. Bonomo was mobbed by reporters who started a gaggle while the other Jacks waited for a group photo, and the organizers handed Bonomo his winnings — $50 in cash, $100 in ZipCar driving credit and a $100 gift card to local bar Salazar. 

To the dismay of the many husband hunters in the crowd, Bonomo, who is tall, brunette and has a sharp nose similar to that of Schlossberg, admitted he has a girlfriend who encouraged him to participate in the contest. 

Look-alike contest attendees formed a line around Bonomo hoping to snap a photo with the newly crowned “people’s princess” of the District. Two of the lucky selfie-grabbers, Emily Green and Kira Pomeranz, 24-year-olds from Northern Virginia and Dupont Circle held signs in the air during the contest like “Looking 4 love (I’m single)” and “If you look like Jack, I’m single.”

Pomeranz said she came to the contest because she is “painfully single” and thought that she could find a date among the contestants. She said she was disappointed that Bonomo is not single but was holding out hope that like the Kennedys, the broader Bonomo clan might hold promise.

“I asked if he had a brother,” Green said. “He did say he had a brother, but he didn’t elaborate. We’re at a bit of a dead end right now.” 

Hanash said they saw a Snapchat ad for the contest and decided to go because they had a button-up shirt and thought they could use gel to style their hair like Schlossberg. They said they don’t look at all like Schlossberg, but said they believe they got credit for being a lesbian and that they feel “incredible” to have made it to the top four. 

“I feel like a great representative of our Revolutionary community at GW,” Hanash said. “It’s a great honor.”