Cheddar Man is a Mesolithic fossil whose February 2018 facial reconstruction showed dark skin and blue eyes, which triggered a short-lived Twitter meme.

Where did Cheddar Man come from?

The fossil was excavated in 1903 from Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, and is held at the Natural History Museum in London.

What does Cheddar Man mean?

Scientifically, it names a roughly 9,000-year-old human skeleton. Online, the term points to the February 2018 Twitter jokes about the reconstructed face, split between cheese puns and thirst tweets.

How do you use Cheddar Man?

Posts typically pun on 'cheddar' with cheese names or play the reconstruction as an attractive crush in a mock-serious tone.

Is Cheddar Man still popular?

The jokes were tied to the February 2018 news cycle and faded after that week, though the discovery still appears in debates about British racial history.

Cheddar Man

2018Twitter reaction / news jokedead

Published November 15, 2026

Cheddar Man is the nickname for a 9,000-year-old human fossil from Somerset whose February 2018 genomic reconstruction revealed dark skin and blue eyes, upending common assumptions about ancient Britons. The Natural History Museum's reveal triggered a short run of Twitter jokes mixing cheese puns on the name with half-serious thirst posts about the reconstructed face, which the BBC and The Independent covered within days.

race and identity memes british memes thirst memes pun memes 2018 memes

Overview

Cheddar Man jokes split into two main formats. One batch played the dark-skinned reconstruction as unexpectedly attractive, with tweets asking who 'fancies Cheddar Man' or calling the bust an awkward crush of the day5. Other accounts worked the dairy angle, pairing the face with cheese-themed alternate names or images like Wallace from Wallace and Gromit reading a magazine called Cheese Monthly3.

Running under the jokes was a sharper argument about race and British identity. The Independent read the Cheddar Man reveal as a punchline against the long assumption that early Britons had been fair-skinned, with the Twitter reaction mirroring Brexit-era anxiety4. The museum used the dark-skin finding to correct older, lighter reconstructions of the same skeleton1.

Gallery

Origin & Background

Platform

Twitter

Date

2018

The fossil was excavated in 1903 from Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, and dates to the Mesolithic period around 9,100 BCE1. On February 7, 2018, the Natural History Museum in London published findings by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Tom Booth, who reported that DNA analysis of the skull showed Cheddar Man had dark pigmentation, blue eyes, and dark curly hair1. A bust produced from the genome data accompanied the release and became the image Twitter users reacted to that evening2.

How It Spread

Within hours of the February 7 announcement, Twitter users began spinning cheese puns off the name and posting tweets about the attractiveness of the reconstructed face2. A branch of the joke featured Wallace from Wallace and Gromit holding a magazine titled Cheese Monthly, while other accounts asked their followers who 'fancies Cheddar Man'3.

The BBC ran a reactions roundup on February 82, and Twitter Moments collected the jokes into a feed titled 'Scientists reveal face of first Briton and people have jokes'5. The Independent's response column read the attention as commentary on British racial anxiety during the Brexit and Trump era, arguing that reactions to the dark-skinned reconstruction revealed more about present-day identity than about the Mesolithic4.

Timeline

1903

The fossil is excavated from Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge, Somerset.

2018-02-07

The Natural History Museum announces DNA analysis showing Cheddar Man had dark skin, blue eyes, and dark curly hair.

2018-02-07

Twitter users respond with cheese puns and half-serious attraction jokes about the reconstructed face.

2018-02-08

BBC publishes a roundup of the Twitter reactions, and Twitter Moments collects the jokes into a dedicated feed.

2018-02

The Independent publishes a column reading the attention as a comment on British racial identity in the Brexit era.

How to Use This Meme

Posts typically take one of two angles. Cheese-based name riffs swap in dairy-themed alternates for the name or pair the bust with cheese-related pop culture like a Wallace and Gromit screenshot. Attraction tweets play the reconstruction as an unexpected crush, often with a 'who fancies' prompt or a hand-raise gesture.