Doppelganger Week

Overview

Doppelgänger Week is an annual social media fad in which Facebook replace their profile pictures with a photograph of a celebrity they have been told that they resemble.

Background

The earliest known and available post about "Dopplegänger Week" was posted on January 18th, 2010 by Facebook user Phil Watson. In his post (shown below), he posted a picture of radio DJ "Wolfman" Jack as well as the text "January 18th starts Doppelgänger week.. during this week please change your profile picture to someone famous (actor ,musician,athelete) you have been told you look like for the week…retro week was a blast last week so lets keep the fun going…post this to your profile and message your friends with it!"

Developments

Over the next few weeks, Dopplegänger Week photographs would be prefaced with that text.^[2] In many cases, rather than just posting a picture of a celebrity next to a photograph of themselves (examples below). On January 31st, 2010, the Facebook^[3] group Doppleganger Week^[3] launched. Within eight years, the page has garnered more than 23,000 likes and followers, respectively.

While the creator of Dopplegänger Week is unknown, in February 2010,^[4] Huffington Post^[5] published an interview entitled "Interview With Bob Patel, Creator of 'Doppelganger Week' on Facebook." However, the article is tagged "Humor and Satire." In comments for the article, author Alex Grossman admitted that the article was satirical. He said:

"More than a few people have questioned whether this interview and Bob Patel are real. Bob Patel is absolutely real. He lives across the street from Santa Claus, just around the corner from The Easter Bunny. Geez…"

Media Coverage

Several media outlets published articles about Dopplegänger Week, including CNET,^[6] ABC,^[7] The Guardian^[8] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References