⁠The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart reacts to the program’s lighting designer George Gountas winning the Pedro Pascal lookalike contest

Jon Stewart says he never noticed that The Daily Show's lighting designer, George Gountas, was a dead ringer for Pedro Pascal.

Gountas recently nabbed the award at the Pedro Pascal lookalike contest held in New York City, and the host of the Comedy Central show invited him on stage for an interview. The Emmy winner conceded to missing the uncanny resemblance between his co-worker and The Last of Us actor:

"I've never noticed that he looks like Pedro Pascal," Stewart said.

In his defense, he brought up a photo of what Gountas looks like at work —curly hair, no glasses, and a beard. Gountas chimed in on how he learned of the contest:

"Well, it's pretty funny," he said. "Tyler Goldman, stage manager, had a group text on maybe Wednesday last week. And he was like, 'Yo, you should go win a year of free burritos.' And I was like, 'OK.' And then I went home. And then on Friday, I showed it to my wife, and she was like, 'You're doing this.'"

He then credited his neighbor, who works as a stylist, for dressing him up. He also recalled showing up to the concert without a reservation:

"I rolled up and I'm like, 'Yo, I'm here,'" he said. "And they were like, 'You're going to win.'"

The segment came after an emotional episode exploring the latest political news and an interview with John Mulaney. Jon Stewart kicked off the interview by noting that this was being done to "lighten the mood slightly."

Pedro Pascal's doppelgänger has a heartfelt plea for him

Jon Stewart noted that now that he sees it, the resemblances between Gountas, 43, and Pedro Pascal, 50, are "really crazy":

"You're a s*xier, younger Pedro Pascal," Stewart quipped. Woman are, as you can see, reacting quite frankly animalistically, and some of the men,” he added.

As for how Gountas' wife is taking in what's happening, he said:

“Her position is that ‘I’m cool with you getting all of this attention if I can meet Pedro Pascal’."

He added:

‘‘Hey Pedro, this is Pedro #5 from New York, it would be a great, great gift if you could meet my wife Jenny, it would mean the world to her, we need to make this happen’,” he said.

Jon Stewart jokingly chimed in, adding that:

“I don’t see how Pedro #1 can turn down Pedro #5,” before referring to him as a “brilliantly talented” lighting designer.

“You should see what I look like without his lighting, it’s some crypt keeper shit,” the host added.

Gountas, a dad from Brooklyn, earned $50 for his looks, in addition to a year’s supply of burritos at the Son Del North Mexican restaurant, in the Lower East Side of the city. As per The New York Post, people first started noticing the similarities when Pedro Pascal debuted on Game of Thrones, his wife said. Since then, as the actor went on to star in many more series, like The Mandalorian and The Last of Us, the remarks came pouring in:

“It started when the ‘Game of Thrones’ came out the first time — that’s when we first heard it,” Jenny Gania said. “Then some kids started noting it, too, so I was like, when we saw this [contest], I was like, ‘It’s Father’s Day. You have to go. It’s going to be your Father’s Day treat,’ ” Gania said she told her husband. “It’s funny, because he’s not on social media at all. But now he’s going to be everywhere.”

Gountas came out on top against nearly 30 other people. He told Stewart that the attention he has since been privy to following his new title was "f---ing insane":

"So, none of this bothers me," Gountas added. "I've been in the industry for many years. I've been around famous people. But the thing that I was most, not scared of, the most uneasy about, was coming here today."

He also referred to those on the show as his big brothers:

"And I knew I was gonna get roasted by my friends," he said.

Annisha Garcia, a chef at the restaurant and its co-owner, said that the Manhattan contest was inspired by Pascal's infamous 2023 quote, where he said that NYC did not have great Mexican food.

“I’m, ‘So sorry, but there’s no Mexican, good Mexican food in New York?’ ” Garcia said. “And we were like, ‘There is, and we are here.’ “

Co-owner Wim Shih noted that the contest was aimed at lightening the mood across the city:

“There’s just so much sadness in the world right now, and we wanted to be a bit of sunshine today amidst all that,” Shih said.

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