Eating Shoes

Out of all the unusual things that someone can eat, shoes tend to be the most popular choice in fiction. Probably because they are the type of clothing one misses the least. Trope Maker is probably Charlie Chaplin, who did it first in his classic The Gold Rush (1925).

Examples of Eating Shoes include:

Anime and Manga

• In Fullmetal Alchemist, protagonist Edward Elric, at one point, boils a leather shoe for Prince Ling Yao to eat: "When I become the Emperor of Xing, I will have you recorded in the history books as 'the man who fed a shoe to the Emperor.'"

Film

• The Gold Rush: Charlie Chaplin and Big Jim, the man he's rooming with at an isolated cabin, are so starved that they start eating one of Chaplin's shoes. It seems to taste to him very well by the way.
  • Fun fact: The shoe was made out of licorice.
• In Jan Svankmajer's short film "Shoes" two customers wait in vain until a waiter comes to take their order. They start eating everything in sight, including their shoes.

Western Animation

• Pet Alien: Gumper eats everything, including shoes.
• Tom is shipwrecked in the Tom and Jerry cartoon "His Mouse Friday" and starts eating his shoes and shoelaces.

Real Life

• German film director Werner Herzog literally ate one of his shoes because he lost a bet. He swore that he would eat his shoe if Errol Morris ever completed the film Gates Of Heaven. When Morris did Herzorg took the opportunity to let film director Les Blank film his activity, which was named Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" (1980).