Doppelganger week is Facebook’s latest viral status trend

Now that everyone’s so over saving the tatas with bra colors in status boxes, helping Haiti was so two weeks ago (and 93% of Facebookers didn’t even have the guts to copy and paste) and Americans are so no longer feeling “no one should have to lose their house because they don’t have health insurance,” your friends have a new all-together-now status update going on.

And this one is lots more narcissistic. Chances are if you use Facebook, you’ve seen this “status update” or something similar cross your news feed:

It’s Celebrity Doppelgänger week. During this week please change your profile picture to someone famous you have been told you look like and post this to your profile.

The origin of this trend is unclear, but expect to see it for a while. Unlike the “help Haiti” and the mildly self-congratulatory “bra colors” updates (think about it- what were the ratios of “sheer” or “leopard” you saw posted versus “none/saggy” or “spit up stained” with that one), this trend offers the opportunity for the user to suggest they look like someone far more attractive and famous than they likely are. Have you seen any “Danny DeVitos” or “Kathy Griffins” in your timeline lately? Unlikely. But count up all the “Angelina Jolies,” “Jonathan Rhys-Meyers” and “Megan Foxes” you all have as friends. Perhaps they called it Doppelganger Week because it sounds fancier than “wishful thinking” week?

Want to know which celebrities you resemble? My Heritage will scan your pic and offer up a bunch of celebrity lookalikes for you Facebook profile.

Update: The New York Daily News covered the trend in a post, citing “game creator Bob Patel” from a Huffington Post satirical piece. Although the post on HuffPo is clearly marked “humor and satire,” the NYDN fails to pick that part up.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, game creator Bob Patel revealed that he came up with the idea after his colleagues teased him about looking like Tom Selleck.

Despite its popularity, Patel seems to take the game with a grain of salt.

“It’s way more popular than “Post a Profile Photo of Your Favorite Norse God Week.” Way more,” he said.