I’m Betches’ resident BoqTok reporter… of course I was at the Boq look-alike contest in NYC this weekend. Do I consider waking up at 11 am much too early for a Saturday? Yes. But I have my priorities! BoqTok creator Molly and her Boq hatred antics are even more important than my beauty sleep.

On the subway, I listened to the Wicked soundtrack to wake myself up and get in the “me and BAWK” zone, and when I arrived at Washington Square Park, I joined a boisterous crowd of Molly stans, theater kids, former theater kids, and baffled randos. They all gathered around the TikTok comedian and her group of Boq “look-alikes” to watch the insane event unfold. If you weren’t able to attend “The First Annual Boq Fest,” I got you covered: Here’s a recap of the Boq look-alike contest.

Boq Look-Alike Contest Recap

Who Organized The Boq Look-Alike Contest?

The brilliant event was brought to us by none other than the creator of BoqTok herself, Molly. (What was life before BoqTok? I can’t recall.) If you’re invested in Wicked and chronically online, you’ve definitely seen at least one or 10 of this queen’s 5,000 Boq hating videos. The rising social media star is passionate about Wicked, but she absolutely despises the awkward munchkin boy *the character not Ethan Slater or any other actor*. She criticizes Boq’s choices, mocks his duet with Nessa, and decided to organize a Boq look-alike contest so she could “berate” the winner. Simply iconic. Molly is a college student but fortunately, her finals are literally just a paper on Tana Mongeau and a painting, so she had the time to swiftly put together this impressive, now-viral event.

Who Won The Boq Look-Alike Contest?

A young fellow by the name of Raul Calderon took home the coveted Boqfest prize and let me just say… there has never been a more deserving look-alike contest winner. This man is an Ethan Slater clone, so it’s no surprise he came all the way from Connecticut to participate. At the competition, he revealed he’s been called Ethan Slater 43 times. I think I would have an existential crisis at that point. And the cherry on top? Raul’s literally an actor and has a Broadway voice. We, the Boqtok look-alike contest crowd, collectively melted during the musical portion of the competition (mhm, there was a musical portion) when this king sang the iconic “Nessa, um Nessa, I’ve got something to confess-a” and sounded like a damn angel. The other Boqs were pissed as fuck; no one else standing up there had that level of vocal cords.

One gorgeous highlight was when the man responsible for the viral “Nessa, um Nessa? Nessa, um Nessa? Nessa, um Nessa” sound showed up and performed a duet of his sound with Raul. If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, you’re not on theater TikTok and that’s respectable. But the guy’s name is Hunter Brown and he’s an actor in the Broadway show, Swept Away (and now a TikTok star). He and Raul were truly a power duo.

Congratulations, Raul. I hope you’re cast as Boq one day… I mean that in the nicest way possible.