Stay at UBC long enough and you start to recognize the little things that make autumn what it is on campus: fragrant petals in the rose garden; the oak trees’ edges turning yellow on the malls; the guy in the green ski-mask vomiting, moaning, absolutely housing two-and-a-half kilograms of frozen peas outside the Nest. Okay, that last one is new, but don’t be a luddite — embrace him! Embrace him.
This is Pea Man, and since June, he's built up a following on UBC-associated corners of Instagram, TikTok and Reddit as the vegetal villain of “Cheeseball Man,” building on a savoury superhero trend that started this spring.
Earlier this year, New York Youtuber AnthPo put on an orange ski mask and ate a massive jar of cheeseballs in Union Square Park. As his stomach expanded, so did his follower counts. Soon, Cheeseball Man had gone viral and raised over $1,000 for the Food Bank for New York City. Now a villain turned homegrown hero wants to do the same for Vancouver.
“I really wanted to do something heroic, do a good thing for the city,” said Pea Man. “So I was like, what if we make a fundraiser event for the [Greater] Vancouver Food Bank?”
On September 4, I showed up outside the Nest at about 4:30p.m., half an hour before Pea Man was to take the stage (read, knoll), looking very official and not at all silly with a giant Ubyssey-issued camera dangling heavily from my neck. Before long, a small crowd had gathered. A few people asked me if this was where the “pea guy” was going to be.
Local Youtuber Kodekai took the mic to hype up the growing audience. Scooter Dom, another UBC influencer, stood beside him, revving his electric scooter on the grass. By now the crowd had become a genuine horde stretching halfway to the bookstore, and the shocked hosting team did their best to consolidate everyone as close to the action as they could.
“I was shocked, honestly,” Pea Man said afterwards. “I didn’t know how to react. I just knew I had to do a cool event … I didn’t expect to throw up four times,” he added happily. “I thought it would be, like, two times.”
When Pea Man appeared from across the commons, the crowd parted. He waved and high-fived his way up the knoll where the hosts introduced him, read donation goals and announced the upcoming auction of various Pea Man memorabilia: a bag of frozen peas, several mysterious bottles of “Pea Man Elixir” and (I was excited about this one) just a regular-ass mini fridge.
After doing some crowd work and hyping up the Food Bank, Pea Man held his two-and-a-half kilogram bag of peas aloft. He dumped them into a large foil bin and went to town. Students perched in trees and climbed up on concrete dividers to get a better view. They cheered and chanted “EAT THOSE PEAS,” “We love you Pea Man!” and “How tall are you, Pea Man!!?” A few donated salt, pepper and sugar to the cause, dumping generous helpings of seasoning over the pile of peas.
Kodekai and his fellow hosts kept the energy up, taking over for Pea Man when his mouth was full. They auctioned off their wares for the benefit of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank, with one audience member paying $200 for a bottle of “Elixir” (the mini fridge would later go for around $100).
Now, I’ll level with you, reader. When my editor texted me the day of Pea Man’s event and asked if I wanted to cover a guy eating a lot of peas outside the Nest, I thought it sounded like a fun 45-minute, in-and-out type piece. I did not expect to be there for almost three hours.
By the time Pea Man licked his last legume, the crowd had shrunk back down to a manageable size. The event had raised almost $3,000 for the Food Bank, and happy fans lined up to shake hands and get autographs. I spoke with Pea Man, Kodekai and Scooter Dom after the admirers had thinned out (and after being impersonated by an overeager influencer trying to get at Pea Man, but that’s another story).
“In Stan Lee’s Spider-Man, they always say it could be anyone behind the mask,” said Kodekai. “If you have free time and [a] good heart, you can do things like this, you can raise two, three thousand dollars for a food bank.”
The hosts agreed that there’s a certain joy in imbuing something as ridiculous as a ski mask superhero eating copious amounts of peas with the kind of meaning that comes from an act of generosity.
“This is really goofy on paper, but I’m so happy how it turned out. I think it was beautiful,” said Pea Man. Kodekai added that, while some might call their method of raising money stupid or meaningless, “there’s so much passion in it, actually, and there's so much kindness.”
At the time of writing, Pea Man’s fundraiser for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank is still active. Consider donating to help the Food Bank feed Vancouverites just like you. Or just do it because you think a guy eating 2.5 kilograms of peas outside the Nest is funny. It’s your moral framework, not mine.
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