The Fourth of July is effectively a blank check written to you by (the large, generally undefined concept of) America. That means you can hold backyard onesie cookouts or belt out "The Star-Spangled Banner" over breakfast -- anything you wanna do because #freedom, man.

You can even head down to Coney Island and shovel as many hot dogs in your mouth as you possibly can, all for the glory of competition. That's what men and women from across the country do every Independence Day, but for nearly a decade, no eater has out-gorged Joey "Jaws" Chestnut, the 31-year-old chomping machine from San Joe, Calif.

That all changed yesterday because of a dude named Matt Stonie. Say hello, Matt.

At the annual hot dog-eating contest outside Nathan's Famous, Stonie put away 62 dogs and buns -- two more than Chestnut -- to take the top spot (including a coveted mustard-yellow championship belt). And oh yeah, Stonie also walked away with $10,000. No big deal.

Except it totally is a big deal. Chestnut has dominated this contest since 2007, when he dethroned Takeru Kobayashi by munching down 66 franks in 12 minutes -- a world record at the time. Then in 2013, Chestnut chomped his way to 69, another record.

FYI, the slight-framed Stonie weighs in at 125 pounds, nearly half of Chestnut's 230 build. Yeah. Gotta be a high-metabolism situation, right? Check out both eaters in the video below; Chestnut's first, then Stonie. Both look determined, and maybe slightly in pain.

Fun fact: There's a women's contest at Coney Island as well, and this year's victor was returning champ Miki Sudo, who ate 38 dogs in 10 minutes and also earned $10K for her troubles. Her strategy, the AP reports, involved consuming the buns separately (totally allowed -- doesn't matter how you eat them as long as you do) after dipping them in Crystal Light. Interesting game plan. Glad it worked out OK!

You go, Miki. 'Til next year!