Every town has its local legends. Somerset, Kentucky, just got a sticky new one. A self-proclaimed “Peanut Butter Smearer” has been quietly terrorizing the Pulaski County community by coating doorknobs in peanut butter and then posting the evidence online for everyone to see.
Residents in a local Somerset Facebook group began comparing notes after finding the gooey mess smeared across their door handles, in a post that has since been deleted. Meanwhile, a TikTok account under the handle @somersetpbsmearer has been documenting the spree, with clips that appear to show the culprit in the act.
Annoying? Absolutely. But on Tuesday, the prank took a turn that pushed it past harmless mischief.
From Doorknobs To The County Fair
The smearer hit the Pulaski County Fair, leaving peanut butter on surfaces across the grounds. Rebecca Cash, who is married to the fair board president, found out the unsettling way when the fair’s treasurer walked out of the office with her hands covered in something. “I think it’s peanut butter,” the treasurer said, and she was right.
The laughs faded fast for Cash, who is also a teacher. She immediately thought about anyone with a severe peanut allergy she’s taught kids who had to carry EpiPens because a reaction could be life-threatening and noted that thousands of people pass through the fairgrounds every night. Any one of those smeared handles could be a real emergency for the wrong person.
Half Folk Hero, Half Public Health Hazard
Online, the reaction landed somewhere between delight and concern. “This is great, you are going to be a legend,” one commenter told the smearer. Locals kept stumbling onto the account in disbelief “Guys my fyp is WAY WAY WAYYYYY too local,” one wrote, while others realized it was unfolding on their own street. Plenty raised the exact worry Cash had: “Wait, what if they have peanut allergies?” And of course, the puns were unavoidable: “Darn Skippy.“
The fair runs through Saturday, with a rodeo and even a sea lion show still on the schedule, and Cash is urging people not to let the peanut butter panic scare them off. Her ask is simple: if you spot something smeared on a doorknob, latch, or fence post, tell someone; it might mean nothing to you, but the kid behind you in line could be at serious risk. As for who’s behind it, that’s still a mystery. WKYT said it reached out to Somerset Police but hadn’t heard back.
