The fable that the moon is made of cheese permeates Western culture. From Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out to Cocomelon, children’s media and literature often perpetuate the fanciful notion of a cheese moon. Despite this, no historical evidence exists that anyone truly believed that the moon consisted of cheese. The earliest written reference appears in Richard Heywood’s 1546 Proverbs, which includes the line “The moone is made of a greene cheese” (Shoenburger, Elisa. “Moon as Cheese: The Myth and Science.” Cheese Professor, 6 May 2025). 

In this context, “greene” refers to young or un-ripened cheese, such as cream cheese or queso fresco, rather than an aged variety like cheddar or parmesan. The idea quickly became shorthand for gullibility. In 1638, English philosopher and bishop John Wilkins wrote, “[Y]ou may […] soon persuade some country peasants that the moon is made of greene cheese (as we say),” using the phrase to illustrate ignorance and the ease of deceiving the uneducated (Mancini, Mark. “Why Do People Say the Moon Is Made of Cheese?” Mental Floss, 21 Sept. 2023).

However, the association between the moon and cheese stretches back even further. Roman author Pliny the Elder wrote about an enormous cheese—up to 1,000 pounds—in The Natural History, stating that it came from several frontiers, including the Roman goddess Luna (Shoenburger). The Roman poet Martial also commented on the cheese, noting that it bore the symbol of Luna. Folklore adds to the myth as well: Jean de la Fontaine’s The Wolf and the Fox in the Well tells of a fox mistaking the moon’s reflection in a well for a wheel of cheese, becoming trapped and later tricking a wolf into the same fate (Shoenburger). Food scholar K. C. Hysmith suggests that Georges Méliès’ 1902 film A Trip to the Moon—which portrays a rocket sticking to the moon’s gooey surface—helped reinforce the connection between cheese and the lunar body (Shoenburger).

Scalzi intentionally avoids scientific specificity in crafting the novel to keep the narrative playful and plausible within its absurd premise. He maintains the moon’s mass to sidestep debates about tides, omits discussion of cheese types, and leaves scientific questions vague to avoid being inundated with corrective emails from “scientists and nerds” (319). The novel’s title, When the Moon Hits Your Eye, draws from the classic Dean Martin song “That’s Amore,” continuing the Western cultural tendency to compare the moon to food, such as the simile of the moon being “like a big pizza pie” in the song. Even in Eastern cultures, the moon often carries culinary symbolism, such as in the popular myth of rabbits pounding rice cakes on its surface.

Scalzi’s decision to treat the science loosely emphasizes the cultural weight of the myth itself. Ultimately, the cheese moon is less about astrophysics and more about collective imagination—and what it reveals about how humans tell stories, explain the unknown, and laugh in the face of the absurd.