After plastering the whole of Manhattan with fliers for several months, a mystery man known as Cheeseball Man gathered a crowd of hundreds to watch him eat a whole tub of cheeseballs.

Meet Cheeseball Man, the superhero New Yorkers never knew they needed. His superpower? Mesmerizing crowds with his insatiable craving for cheeseballs. It all started with some fliers showing a man with an orange ski mask holding a large tub full of cheeseballs and inviting everyone to come watch him devour the cheesy treats in Manhattan’s Union Square Park, on April 27th. The fliers went up months before the big day, and although Cheeseman didn’t really expect a large crowd to accept his invitation, he was blown away by the size of his audience. Close to 1,000 people gathered in Union Square Park to watch him gobble down his jar of cheeseballs, and videos of the big event have so far been viewed millions of times online.

Photo: Cheeseballman427/Instagram

“I didn’t really expect this many people to show up,” Cheeseball Man told ABC News New York City. “I think everybody wants to be behind the mask.”

A viral video that has been doing the rounds online for the past couple of weeks shows Cheeseball Man making a speech in front of a big crowd, before going to work on the bucket of cheeseballs. You can hear people cheering him on as he begins to struggle with the corn meal and cheese treats, and that seems to give him the motivation needed to push on.

“There was a moment that I was definitely going to throw up. And then people said, ‘Keep it down,’ really loudly. So, I just kept it in,” Cheeseball Man said, adding that his mild gluten allergy was a problem as well.

The now-legendary Cheeseball Man took about half an hour to complete his task, and then basked in the glory, signing autographs and taking photos with his adoring fans. On social media, the feedback has been very positive, with hundreds of people declaring themselves entertained by New York’s mysterious superhero.

He’s a local hero to many NYC patrons,” someone wrote on X (Twitter). “We expect statues to be created in his honor.”

“Now these are the types of public gatherings we should be having,” someone else wrote.

Overwhelmed by the unexpected attention, Cheeseball Man has been riding the wave to the best of his abilities, spending the last couple of weeks making appearances at various events across NYC with his now-famous orange ski mask and a large tub of cheeseballs. He is already planning next year’s meeting, telling reporters that he plans to eat an even bigger jar of cheeseballs.

“Oh, I have to do it in the mask,” Cheeseball Man said, revealing only that he is a 22-year-old man who simply thought that his fellow New Yorkers needed something like this to put a smile on their faces.