Cheese Ball Man (New York City)

Submission 2,201

About

The Cheese Ball Man, also known as @cheeseballman427 on Instagram and TikTok, refers to a performance artist in New York City who ate an entire jar of cheese balls in Union Square Park in late April 2024. He notably wears an orange ski mask and a black jacket. After advertising his event via flyers posted around NYC, Cheese Ball Man fulfilled the challenge in front of a large crowd, going viral across social media platforms like Twitter / X and TikTok due to other people recording and documenting the event. Many compared him to the Philadelphia Rotisserie Chicken Man who performed a similar viral eating stunt before him. As the story went viral, many humorously criticized the event by labeling it cringe, predominantly centering on Cheese Ball Man (as a concept) being indicative of "old internet" memes too random for their own good, like Le Epic Bacon, among other comparisons.

Online History

On March 10th, 2024, the Cheese Ball Man posted his first Instagram^[1] post to his account @cheeseballman427, seen wearing an orange ski mask, receiving over 1,800 likes in a day (shown below).

Also on March 10th, Cheese Ball Man shared his first post to TikTok,^[9] which was a photo slideshow of more selfies. Going into March 2024, Cheese Ball Man posted other TikToks^[10]^[11] in which he ate cheeseballs and narrated the experience (examples shown below).

Union Square Park Event

On March 30th, 2024, X^[2] user @Indian_Bronson tweeted a photo of a flyer advertising the Cheese Ball Man's eating stunt, set to occur in Union Square Park on April 27th, 2024, in which he'd eat an entire jar of cheese balls. @Indian_Bronson captioned the photo, "The US can decline and even dissolve, but the American Spirit will not be defeated," receiving over 19,000 likes in a month (shown below).

The flyer had a QR code that linked to the event's event page on Partiful.^[3]

On April 24th, 2024, The Philadelphia Inquirer^[4] writer Emily Bloch published an article about the Cheese Ball Man in which she reached out to Alexander Tominsky, the Philadelphia Rotisserie Chicken Man, for comment. On the topic, Tominsky said, "Sometimes people see something they thought was cool and want to put their own spin on it."

Writer Emily Bloch tweeted about her article on April 24th, gaining over 900 likes in five days (shown below).

On April 27th, 2024, multiple posts went viral on social media documenting the Cheese Ball Man's stunt in Union Square Park. For instance, on the day, TikToker^[5] @user530266021160k posted a video of the event, gaining over 11.6 million plays and 2.6 million likes in two days (shown below).

Online Reactions

After videos and photos of the event went viral, many users shared positive reactions, like X^[6] user @SmittyNYK on April 27th, 2024, who said, "New York is the best city man a whole crowd showed up to watch a guy eat a full jar of cheese balls at 3 PM 😭," gaining over 17,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Criticism

While many posted positively about the event, others shared negative reactions that labeled the event cringe. For instance, X^[7] user @justinboldaji posted a quote on April 28th, 2024, writing, "This is le epic bacon," receiving over 6,500 likes in a day (shown below, left).

Also on April 28th, X^[8] user @pyroxiumn posted a similar quote, writing, "Feels very 2008 Obama era 'random' core, do the Harlem shake, Great Recession here. Has to be an recession indicator here," gaining over 16,000 likes in a day (shown below, right).

Other criticism centered on the event being nonindicative of New York and what native New Yorkers enjoy, evident in a quote shared by X^[12] user @_pem_pem on April 28th, 2024, reading, "everyone who attended should be deported back to Minnesota," receiving over 7,300 likes in a day (shown below).