Egged on by his shipmates and the owner of a house where “The Goonies” was filmed nearly four decades ago, a sailor in dress whites danced the Truffle Shuffle.
The petty officer second class, identified only as Ron by his buddies, appears in a popular TikTok video posted June 8 by the homeowner, Behman Zakeri. A self-described “Goonies” superfan, Zakeri purchased the Astoria, Ore., landmark in December for $1.7 million, according to Willamette Week.
Zakeri, unlike the previous owner, welcomes “Goonies” fans and plans to preserve the home as a shrine to the film, the Portland weekly newspaper reported.
“The Goonies,” a 1985 adventure-comedy, starred Sean Astin and Josh Brolin and was directed by Richard Donner from a story by Steven Spielberg. The plot involves a group of kids who discover a map and set off to save their homes from foreclosure by finding the lost treasure of One-Eyed Will, a 17th-century pirate.
Fans have flocked to the 127-year-old structure ever since “The Goonies” was released, according to National Public Radio. The city of Astoria, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean, celebrates Goonies Day on the film’s release date, June 7, which draws thousands of Goonie aficionados.
The eight sailors said they belonged to the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain, which stopped in Astoria en route to the Rose Festival upriver in Portland, Ore., according to the Columbia River Ship Report of June 8.
“Here we are live at the ‘Goonies’ house right now and look at all these sailors that came up to visit us,” Zakeri says at the start of his TikTok video.
The camera pans over to the sailors in their dress white uniforms approaching the property where Zakeri greets them with a well-worn line from the movie: “Hey, you guys!”
That line belongs to Sloth, a character played by John Matuszak, an actor and former NFL player with the Oakland Raiders who died four years after the movie premiered. The tortured, disfigured Sloth befriends the children and becomes one of the movies’ unlikely heroes.
Zakeri asks the sailors do the “initiation dance,” the Truffle Shuffle, as performed in the film by the character Chunk, played by Jeff Cohen, who lifts his shirt, displays his midsection and executes a spasmodic wiggle.
“We were just talking about that,” one of the sailors responds. Another adds, lightheartedly: “No, not while in uniform.”
Zakeri promises a peek inside the front living room, where other iconic “Goonies” scenes were filmed, if one of them performs the initiation dance.
Ron steps up, and Zakeri leads him to the exact spot in the front yard near the porch where Chunk made the Truffle Shuffle famous.
Ron is hesitant but soon pulls his white jumper up to his chest, exposing his belly, and performs his rendition of the shuffle.
“Another Truffle Shuffle!” Zakeri shouts from the porch before the 2-minute, 27-second video ends. As of Friday, it had collected 27,800 likes, 481 shares and 405 comments.
Some commenters expressed concern for the sailor performing the dance in uniform.
“Hope they don’t get in trouble for that,” wrote TikTok user Jorge_Chazo, along with the tears-of-joy emoji.
Other congratulated Zakeri for welcoming the service members.
“That’s awesome,” wrote a user named Supertorqued. “My son is in the USN, thanks for treating them well.”