Philadelphians say New York cheese ball eater is copying Chicken Man. We asked him about it.
“New York is not Philly. Which means that the whole ‘eating cheese puffs’ thing will not be as impressive.”
Across New York, a grassroots campaign to watch a guy eat an entire jar of cheese balls at a park is building momentum — to which Philadelphians are saying: *yawn.* Been there done that.
On Saturday, a man only known as Cheese Ball Man says he will eat an entire tub of the nuclear orange snack at Union Square Park starting at 3 p.m. Fliers across the city show the man wearing an orange ski mask and holding his jar of cheese balls.
Soon after word spread, Philadelphians weighed in (as we do), challenging the campaign’s originality and comparing it to one by Alexander Tominsky, the South Philly native who went viral in 2022 for drawing hundreds to an abandoned pier to watch him eat his 40th rotisserie chicken in as many days, earning him the title of “Chicken Man.”
“New York [is] just ripping off our chicken man,” Philly resident Eric Fink wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Be original NYC!!!”
“Rip off” or not, Tominsky isn’t mad about it.
“Sometimes people see something they thought was cool and want to put their own spin on it,” he told The Inquirer. “There have been a handful of people that have copied what I did at this point. I can’t find a reason to be mad at it.”
That doesn’t mean Tominsky thinks it will necessarily go well.
“The only thing that made the whole ‘thing’ I did impressive was because of the support of Philadelphia,” he said. “New York is not Philly, which means that the whole ‘eating cheese puffs’ thing will not be as impressive.”
The Chicken Man’s antics previously inspired other rabble-rousers to eat rotisserie chicken in front of a crowd. Tominsky pointed to an event based on his that took place last year, where a University of California San Diego student implored his peers to watch him eat an entire rotisserie chicken outside of the campus library.
@anhonymous some guy also missed his midterm for this,,, i swear this is the most school spirit i have ever seen here #ucsd #costco #chicken ♬ original sound - anh
“That one was the most impressive,” Tominsky said. “There might have been twice the turnout. However, it didn’t look like he finished the chicken.”
So, what will become of Cheese Ball Man? Will he succeed and be celebrated? Or will the whole event fizzle out like a stale snack? Online, nearly 700 people have RSVP’d as “attending” the watch party.
“I hope they and the people around them have a good time,” Tominsky said. “Fun is good.”
The Cheese Ball Man could not be reached for comment.