Does anyone know what the cheese guy was supposed to represent in the episode where they all dream about the first slayer. I always guessed it was supposed to represent Buffy.

Joss Whedon detto it himself that the Cheese Man was completely random and there was no point to him. Unlike all of the other hidden meanings in that episode he was just random. lol

I totally secondo NikkiLovesOTH on this; according to Joss himself, in "Restless" (4x22) ANYTHING has a meaning, just anything BUT the cheese guy.
Anyway, there has been a lot of speculations among the die-hard fan of the series whether if this is actually true o Evil Joss is just trying to drive us off the rail.
What's the truth about this I can't say (and none can in my opinion, più so if te apparently don't believe to Joss). All I can say is that te can find a lot of hypothetical articoli around the web which try to explain the role of the Cheese Guy on their own, giving to him less o più credit in the evolution of the series.
For me, it's just another proof of the multiple aspects of the complexity of Btvs, demonstrating once again it never was your run-of-the-mill TV hour.

I haven't read the interview with Joss that the other two mentioned, but if that is what he detto then that must be what it means.
For some reason though, it always made me think of the farmer in the dell song, specifically the line "the cheese stands alone". Each character sees the cheese man in their dream, when they are feeling alone and vulnerable. It also fits with the lyric in the musical episode "understand we'll go hand in hand, but we'll walk alone in fear.", as well as with the first slayers line when she says that the slayer should be alone and have no friends.
Clearly, I put way too much meaning behind these things though. lol

just a funny gag but i know what te mean i thought about him a long time.