Funnily enough, Colby is reasonably common here in Australia, though Jack is significantly less common.
The two main cheeses you can get super cheaply in a large block at supermarkets here in Australia are so-called “Tasty” (which is basically just generic somewhat-aged cheddar) and Colby; “American” cheese such as Kraft singles is cheap and common also, though it competes somewhat with pre-sliced Colby and Tasty.
Tasty is probably the most common by far, and also comes in infamous brand varieties such as “COON”.
I too am happy to eat straight Parmesan, but I still think it’s fair to call it an “accent cheese” as it serves that role much better than many other cheeses.
While I enjoyed your discussions of cheese, you guys are pretty low-level in your knowledge, but you were up front about that.
Regarding cheesesteaks: american, provolone, or whiz (totally gross in my opinion) are are viewed as traditional, valid cheese options. That said, fancing it up with something inherently meltable (smoked gouda only aged a few months) or a bechamel sauce is totally delicious if non-traditional. My wife and I laughed at Rym’s strong emotional response about a correct cheesesteak as a new yorker.
Pretty sure I remember the story behind the Christmas (in July) cheese. As I recall, Rym got stopped on the street by a girl asking if he wanted some cheese. It turned out that they had a bunch of excess cheese to get rid of, something about over-ordering or a broken fridge I think, and were giving it away to randos on the street by the pound.
Probably says something about my life that I remember that better than literally anything I personally did that year.