The Time Dolly Parton Lost A Dolly Parton Lookalike Contest

The intriguing-from-birth Dolly Parton is widely considered an absolute one-of-a-kind. From her unique, loving outlook to her incomparable fashion sense, that would certainly seem to be the case. After all, she isn't one to follow the crowd; rather, the crowd follows along in her wake. As she Tweeted in 2015, "Find out who you are and do it on purpose." In Parton's case, this isn't so much a peppy inspirational phrase as it is an expression of a life philosophy.

There's nobody quite like Dolly Parton, whether in the music business or beyond. In fact, she's firmly against imitators, or rather, people she calls "creative vampires." As she explained to People in December 2021, "a creative vampire is someone who takes your ideas and they claim them as their own, they take them and then they scatter them out."

Those who simply adore her and imitate her signature style for lookalike purposes, however, she doesn't object to. Not even if, incredibly, they manage to look more like her than she does.

There are probably very few places the fabulous philanthropist can go without being recognized, but a Dolly Parton lookalike contest might offer her some degree of camouflage. A contest for drag queens takes place in Los Angeles, according to Woman's World, and she once decided to take part, the other contestants none the wiser.

Regaling "Nightline" (via ABC News) with the incredible story (just one more from her remarkable life), she explained that a lot of people were dressing as herself and Cher at that particular event, so she felt the need to really up the ante to out-Dolly her fellow Partons. To do this, she said, she emphasized her famous features even more: "made my beauty mark bigger, the eyes bigger, the hair bigger, everything."

Somehow, Dolly going full Dolly wasn't enough to beat the competition. Not only did she not win, she may have technically lost, claiming that she "got the least applause" and supposing that everyone assembled "just thought [she] was some little short gay guy." Being the benevolent soul she is, though, Parton didn't take umbrage at being beaten at her own game. She just felt bad joining in at all, she said, simply walking in and taking part when the lookalikes had been spending such a long time working on their outfits and looks.