Following in the wonderful footsteps of Werner Herzog, a journalist has agreed to eat a shoe after dismissing the possibility of a Top Gun sequel.

Never make a bet on Twitter, kids. A decade ago, Matt Patches, a Polygon entertainment editor, tweeted that if a Top Gun sequel ever happened, he would eat a shoe.

That probably felt like a silly and innocuous statement at the time – who’d want to make a follow-up to a two-decades old cheesy pilot action film? – but never doubt the Hollywood power of Tom Cruise. Earlier this month, Top Gun: Maverick premiered at Cannes Film Festival, and poor Patches’ fate was sealed.

“A decade ago I tweeted that if Top Gun 2 happened I would eat a shoe. No one has let me forget this… including the folks at Paramount, who are quite excited for me to be wrong,” he tweeted. “Saving this for after the actual shoe (although I may already be in a coma). Check back Thursday,” he added, with the tweet accompanied by a picture of the journalist holding a blue shoe-themed cake.

“Check back Thursday” could be referring to the U.S. premiere date for Maverick following its Cannes showing, which would make for quite the sight to see an entertainment editor chowing down on an Air Nike on a glamorous red carpet.

If Patches does find the bravery, he’ll join some esteemed company: legendary director Werner Herzog infamously ate a shoe after he scoffed at the idea of his friend, Errol Morris, ever completing a film he was working on, only for Morris to finish Gates of Heaven in 1979.

And the German eccentric literally ate a shoe, boiling it for hours with garlic and herbs to sweeten the deal. If you want to see what that looks like, the entire moment is available to watch on YouTube.

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