--- title: Butternut Squash Was Not Cheddar Cheese and Man Not Is Happy description: One man demanding that a supermarket exchange his butternut squash that he thought was cubed cheese has lit up the internet canonical: https://time.com/4872667/butternut-squash-cheese-return-viral/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-25T18:50:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:45:42.439Z og:title: The Internet Is Obsessed With This Man Who Thought Butternut Squash Was Cubed Cheese og:description: One man's quest for cheese has become the latest internet-anointed viral plight og:url: https://time.com/4872667/butternut-squash-cheese-return-viral/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b541cbeb5cc29ac/6988d71eab6d7763d96af1eb/gettyimages-590775415.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3345 og:image:height: 1882 og:image:alt: butternut squash, chopped in bowl og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Is Obsessed With This Man Who Thought Butternut Squash Was Cubed Cheese twitter:description: One man's quest for cheese has become the latest internet-anointed viral plight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b541cbeb5cc29ac/6988d71eab6d7763d96af1eb/gettyimages-590775415.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Is Obsessed With This Man Who Thought Butternut Squash Was Cubed Cheese > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 25, 2017 6:50 PM UTC  butternut squash, chopped in bowl butternut squash, chopped in bowl Westend61—Getty Images/Westend61 by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Jul 25, 2017 6:50 PM UTC One man’s quest for cheese has become the [latest internet-anointed viral plight](http://time.com/4852917/harry-potter-fanfiction-thread/). The harrowing tale going around [Twitter](http://time.com/4748294/olive-garden-twitter/) features a displeased customer’s valiant fight against clearly labeled butternut squash that he thought was cheddar cheese. Twitter tales are a wildly entertaining but not necessarily accurate grand tradition of the internet. But according to innocent bystander James Dator who documented the whole ordeal on Twitter, this poor, poor reasonable man was all set to spread out the superior orange chunks — cheddar cheese — for his guests, but then something terrible happened. He realized he accidentally bought butternut squash. Determined to set things right, he went straight back to the supermarket to exchange the “rabbit food” for the cubed cheddar. It gets crazier from there. Turn on Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and read the full account below. > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888879298349867009) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888879666148331521) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888879837116588032) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888880731988140034) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888881180879269889) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888882132663271426) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888882567625179138) > [](https://twitter.com/James%5FDator/status/888883071570898947) It’s like they never say. One man’s squash is the internet’s gift. The original tweet from Friday that started it all was retweeted 1,172 times and liked 2,889 times by Tuesday. > [](https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/889864749705506816) > [](https://twitter.com/StormWill%5F/status/889720991416426496) > [](https://twitter.com/dariansanchez/status/889686461712187392) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4872667/butternut-squash-cheese-return-viral/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4872667/butternut-squash-cheese-return-viral/"},"headline":"The Internet Is Obsessed With This Man Who Thought Butternut Squash Was Cubed Cheese","datePublished":"2017-07-25T18:50:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:45:42.439Z","description":"One man's quest for cheese has become the latest internet-anointed viral plight","url":"https://time.com/4872667/butternut-squash-cheese-return-viral/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Social Media","Shopping","Food","viral","twitter","Bizarre","party","food and drink","onetime","Business"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b541cbeb5cc29ac/6988d71eab6d7763d96af1eb/gettyimages-590775415.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b541cbeb5cc29ac/6988d71eab6d7763d96af1eb/gettyimages-590775415.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"butternut squash, chopped in bowl","caption":"butternut squash, chopped in bowl","creditText":"Westend61—Getty Images/Westend61","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4872667/butternut-squash-cheese-return-viral/","name":"The Internet Is Obsessed With This Man Who Thought Butternut Squash Was Cubed Cheese"}}]}] ```