New Delhi: Nine men, nine Mamdani-inspired outfits and one question about pizza. That was enough to draw hundreds of people to New York’s Washington Square Park on Sunday for a contest to find the city’s best Zohran Mamdani lookalike.
Part-time actor and Mamdani impersonator Amadeo Fusca won the crowd’s approval and the $100 prize.
Fusca was among nine contestants who turned up dressed in versions of the New York mayor’s distinctive style. Several copied Mamdani’s hairstyle and facial hair, while others wore dark suits, patterned ties, dress shoes and silver rings. One contestant even wore the brown suit Mamdani sported during his 2025 mayoral campaign.
Fusca wore a New York Knicks jersey underneath his blazer, a nod to Mamdani’s well-known support of the NBA team. Another contestant appeared shirtless but wearing an apron, recreating a look from a rap music video Mamdani made in 2019.
What’s your favourite pizza?
The competition, hosted by Sonder, a social app designed to help Gen Z users connect and form friendships, had a simple format. Each contestant was asked to answer one question: “Name your favourite pizza.” The winner was decided by who got the loudest applause from the crowd.
The event was initially organised inside Washington Square Park, but police asked the organisers to leave because they did not have a permit. Contestants and spectators then moved to an area just outside the park, near the Washington Square Arch, where the competition continued.
Fusca won and took home $100, while the runner-up received $50. The comedian has already attracted millions of views online through his impersonations of Mamdani, turning his resemblance to the mayor into a growing social-media presence.
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Where was the real Mamdani?
Mamdani himself was nowhere near the competition. While nine versions of him competed in Greenwich Village, the mayor was reportedly at a family camping programme, learning how to make s’mores.
This was not the first time Mamdani’s likeness has been turned into a public spectacle. A similar lookalike contest was held in Brooklyn in 2025, when Mamdani was still campaigning for mayor, and his profile was gaining momentum on social media.
The latest event also follows a wider trend of lookalike contests in New York. Greenwich Village hosted a competition for New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson in June. Such events have increasingly become a low-cost way for organisers, brands and social-media platforms to draw crowds and generate viral content.
The ‘rigged’ contest
Following the declaration of the winner, one contestant refused to accept the judges’ decision. The 6-foot-2 “Mamdani lookalike” claimed the competition had been rigged.
Wearing a Knicks jersey under a dark blazer, the character allegedly spent the event dancing to “YMCA”, giving thumbs-up to the crowd and insisting that “everybody says” he looked the most like Mamdani.
“This was a rigged contest—totally rigged,” he said, before accusing the organisers of favouring a “weak Zohran” and claiming that other contestants were “illegal Zohrans” from Brooklyn.
He also questioned the crowd’s reaction, arguing that the applause in his favour had been “suppressed by the failing sound system”.
Why Mamdani has become lookalike material
Mamdani, who took office in January, has developed a particularly strong following among younger New Yorkers, boosted by his social-media presence and distinctive public image. His suits, facial hair and political persona have become recognisable enough to be replicated and, now, competed over.
For contestants, the attraction is not just the cash. There is also the possibility of going viral, gaining followers and turning a resemblance into a social-media identity. For Fusca, who already impersonates Mamdani online, Sunday’s contest offered a chance to do all three.
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)
A Kashmiri Pandit girl whose family must have lived through the horror of Islamist terrorism is fangirling over Zohran Mamdani – an Islamist terror apologist.
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