About

Famous Couple Lookalike Duets refers to a trend on TikTok set to the sound "sofia by clario,"^[1] a slowed and reverbed version of the song "Sofia" by Clairo.^[2] To follow the trend, TikTokers upload a green screen video featuring their celebrity lookalike and the celebrity's partner as the background. The TikToker then steps in front of the lookalike, often lip-syncing to the song. Another TikToker who looks like the celebrity's partner (or very much does not in parody versions of the trend) then Duets to the original, using the same green screen photo.

Origin

On June 12th, 2020, TikToker marianna_ology^[3] uploaded a video tagged #celebritylookalikechallenge, where she stands one-by-one in front of a series of green screens displaying celebrities that people say she looks like, but she disagrees with (shown below, left). The video gained over 682,000 views in 4 months, and is one of the first celebrity lookalike trends on the platform. The video inspired other TikTokers to do the same using marianna_ology's original sound, which has been used in over 25,000 videos as of November 4th, including an ironic one uploaded by Joe Jonas on August 9th (shown below, right).

On September 23rd, TikToker ello.im.ello^[4] uploaded a video set to the sound "sofia by clario" using TikTok's green screen effect to project an image of Mavis and Johnny from the Hotel Transylvania film series into the background, featuring the on-screen caption, "this is literally all i want" (shown below, left). Ello.im.ello steps into the frame over Mavis' face and lip-syncs to the song. The video garnered over 4.9 million views in under 2 months. On September 24th, TikToker spaceboyriley,^[5] who shares a resemblance with Johnny, Duetted the video (shown below, right). The Duet gained over 18.7 million views in under 2 months, and sparked the trend.

Spread

The trend continued into October, with TikTokers uploading their own famous couple lookalike green screens with the intention of attracting duets. For example, on October 11th, 2020, TikToker nickolas_ray^[6] uploaded a video comparing himself to Ron from Kim Possible, inspiring a Duet from TikToker faithleeanne^[7] who resembles Kim (Duet shown below, left). In a subsequent Duet from faithleeanne, it is revealed that the two got together in real life following the TikToks.^[8] Another popular example was uploaded on October 27th by TikToker max.imovic,^[9] who Duetted to a video by agos.culotta^[10] in which she shows her similarity to Colette Tatou from Ratatouille, and he shows his similarity to Linguini (shown below, right). The duet gained over 28 million views in 1 week.

On October 30th, BuzzFeed^[11] reported on the trend. As of November 4th, the original sound attributed to these videos has been used over 237,000 times.

Famous Couple Lookalike Parodies

TikTokers began making parody bait and switch duets to Famous Couple Lookalike videos as the trend picked up more steam. In the parodies, the TikToker duetting looks nothing like the other half of the famous couple. On October 21st, TikToker goober_productions^[12] uploaded a parody Duet to a video by graklol^[13] in which she claims to look like Sam from iCarly seeking out a Freddy (shown below, left). Instead, goober_productions pops up, resembling Gibby. The video gained over 21.2 million views in under a month. On October 30th, TikToker mmmjoemele^[14] uploaded a duet to max.imovic's Ratatouille duet in which he resembles Anton Ego, garnering over 21.1 million views in 5 days (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References