COVINGTON, Ky. — A mysterious billboard has popped up in Covington, portraying a man who eats an obscene amount of cheese each year.

Enigma doesn’t even begin to describe the billboard on the corner of West 3rd and Bakewell streets. It reads: 

"This man consumes over 20 gallons of liquid cheese in a year!"

It’s a seemingly innocuous, yet scintillating message. It may seem like something someone would do to their brother.

“Oh, it’s classic," said Cody Brown. "We literally walked for 10 minutes laughing the entire time, and we also took a picture so that we could show our friends."

“I didn’t think it was real. I thought maybe it was a joke of some kind,” said Cody's brother, Tony Brown.

"(I) kind of thought it was a fantasy football thing," Cody said. "Maybe he lost his league because it looks like they caught him off guard there in the picture. I kept reading it over and over; 20 gallons of liquid cheese a year? I just couldn’t understand it.”

Jake Laws, the man on the billboard, explained the situation on TikTok.

“This is me here on a billboard, just eating my mac and cheese that I had for lunch one day that my good buddy and coworker, Jonathan, had taken a picture of me eating,” Laws said.

How it got to this point was a matter of two friends trading pranks.

“It started out as a small little prank battle between me and my coworker, Jonathan," Laws said. "We have pulled pranks on each other for quite a bit now. He sent me mysterious letters in the mail. I photoshopped him on some random people’s bodies and hung up the photos around the workplace.”

“I came in, and I saw some of my coworkers wearing these shirts that had my face on it. (They said) ‘20 gallons’ and ‘unstoppable.’ Of course, those are clues to the billboard that I had no idea was happening yet.”

Later that day, about an hour after he got home from work, Laws received a phone call from his sister.

“[She’s] saying, 'I need to drive down to Covington,' which was mysterious,” he said.

The billboard started going viral on Reddit with people questioning if it was an ad for Kraft Mac and Cheese or for Cincinnati Reds opening day.

But it was just a prank.

“I was shocked," Laws said. "I felt like I was on 'Impractical Jokers,' and I was being punished. The billboard reads that I consume 20 gallons of liquid cheese a year, which I don’t know if it’s true. I guess that’s the big question surrounding this billboard is do I actually eat that much cheese?"

"I eat a lot of cheese, I’ll say. I love Skyline; I love LaRosa’s. They have some of the best cheese in Cincinnati, so I do love cheese. But I can’t say I’ve ever done the math. I never knew I would ever need to do the math to see how much cheese I consume in a year."

He described his coworker, Jonathan Pittman, as “such a smart and crazy guy."

"He comes up with very elaborate pranks," Laws said. "He is Jim from 'The Office,' and I’m Dwight. I’m very prankable, so he gets me good a lot. This was a big step from what we’ve done in the past.”

Both Laws and Pittman declined interview requests with Spectrum News 1.

As for Laws, he’s maintained a positive attitude about his new claim to fame.

“It’s just a billboard and a funny prank," he said. "It’s really funny; I hope you guys enjoy it. Spread some positivity, have fun in life, but that’s the story."

The billboard will stay up for four weeks, which will cost Pittman more than $1,000.