Pieing
Encyclopedia
Pieing is the act of throwing a pie
at a person or persons. This can be a political action when the target is an authority figure, politician, or celebrity and can be used as a means of protesting against the target's political beliefs, or against perceived arrogance or vanity. Perpetrators generally regard the act as a form of ridicule to embarrass and humiliate the victim. In some U.S. states pieing may conform to definitions of the crime of battery, but not assault.
Pieing and pie fights are a staple of slapstick comedy, and pie "tosses" are also common charity fundraising events, especially in schools.
comedy, first seen in the 1909 Essanay Studios
silent film
Mr. Flip
starring Ben Turpin
. In the story, Turpin has a pie pushed into his face for taking liberties with a woman.
Beginning in 1913 with That Ragtime Band
and A Noise from the Deep
, filmmaker Mack Sennett
became known for using one or two thrown pies in many of his comedy shorts. Sennett had a personal rule about who received the pies: "A mother never gets hit with a custard pie ... Mothers-in-law, yes. But mothers? Never."
At least a half dozen films have been made incorporating extended pie-throwing battles. The first was Charlie Chaplin
's Behind the Screen
released in 1916. The definitive pie fight film is The Battle of the Century
(1927) starring Stan Laurel
and Oliver Hardy
, using 3,000 pies. Our Gang
's Shivering Shakespeare
(1930) winds up with an auditorium full of people throwing pies. The 1935 short subject called Keystone Hotel
featured a large pie fight ending with the camera taking a pie. In 1941, another major pie fight film appeared: The Three Stooges' In the Sweet Pie and Pie
. A Technicolor
film involving pies was the 1965 comedy, The Great Race
; known for having the largest pie fight in cinematic history. Its $200,000 pie fight scene used one large cake and 4,000 pies, and took five days to shoot.
There are many instances in the Looney Tunes
series of cartoons where characters "pie" each other in the face. Bugs Bunny
repeatedly hits Elmer Fudd
with cream pies during a scene in Slick Hare. In Shishkabugs, Bugs Bunny releases a spring-loaded pie into the face of the king, causing the royal cook Yosemite Sam
to be led away to a dungeon. The episode Daffy Dilly has Daffy Duck
trying to cure a dying millionaire by getting him to laugh. After he achieves this inadvertently, by landing in a cake, Daffy is hired as a sort of household jester and ends the cartoon by getting repeatedly pelted with cakes and pies.
In one of the Batman
comic books, The Joker once concocted an elaborate scheme whose sole purpose was to hit Batman in the face with a pie.
Many comedy routines have used a pie as a gag, including ones performed by Soupy Sales
and Monty Python
.
was pied on the show Days of Our Lives
.
Brett Favre
was pied at the 1999 Fox Kids Bowl along with Jerome Bettis
.
Late IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon
was a well-known prankster who pied friend Scott Dixon
when he won the 2008 IndyCar Championship.
, G. Gordon Liddy
, E. Howard Hunt
, and Andy Warhol
. A disciple of Aron Kay, Thom Higgins, pied singer and anti-gay rights activist Anita Bryant
in Des Moines, Iowa
, in 1977 (audio footage of the incident is included in the Chumbawamba
song Just Desserts, a homage to the concept of pieing). Kay retired in 1992 after pieing right-wing activist Randall Terry
. Kay appears in cartoon form in a 2003 animated music video, "Death penalty for pot" by Benedict Arnold and The Traitors, where he and Dana Beal
pie George W. Bush
and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
(at 2 minutes and 33 seconds into the video).
Concerning Kay, an article in the San Francisco Examiner says: "He considers the Three Stooges, whom he began watching on TV as a kid, as the true fathers of pie-throwing."
Recently, the Belgian anarchist and surrealist Noël Godin
has gained a following for pieing figures whom he believes take themselves too seriously, such as filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
during the Cannes Film Festival
. His favorite target was Bernard-Henri Lévy
. Godin stated that the men he most desired to pie were Bill Clinton
, Tony Blair
, John Travolta
, Tom Cruise
and Pope John Paul II. Godin's popularity has inspired many copycats.
A noted victim of pieing was Microsoft
founder Bill Gates
who was pied in Belgium
in 1998. A computer game was later released in which Gates' head pops up around the screen and the object is to "pie" as many of his heads as possible in the allocated time.
The anonymous Biotic Baking Brigade
has pied or attempted to pie, among others, conservative pundits Ann Coulter
and David Horowitz; and Fred Phelps
, the controversial leader of the Westboro Baptist Church
. Coulter has also been attacked by the "terrorist" group Al Pieda. The Canadian group the Entartistes
, founded by Rhinoceros Party of Canada founder François Gourd
, has also pied many, including then-Prime Minister of Canada
Jean Chrétien
. In 2003 in the city of Calgary
they pied Ralph Klein, the premier of the Canadian province of Alberta
, saying in their press release: "Is it surprising to see Ralph Klein opposing the Kyoto Accord for the right of big corporations to pollute, the same corporations that finance his campaigns?"
"The pie gives power back to the people because so many feel powerless in the face of big politicians and industrialists", explained Pope-Tart (a pseudonym), a member of the Entartistes. Newsweek
columnist Gersh Kuntzman
wrote that pieing "deserves to be one of the most celebrated traditions in our so-called culture."
Sometimes pieing targets suffer the prank with good humor. Godard was very pleased at being pied; he intervened with the Cannes authorities on behalf of Noël Godin
to prevent him from being arrested. Anti-gay campaigner Anita Bryant, upon being pied by a gay activist on television, joked that "at least it's a fruit pie", apparently making a pun on the derogatory term for a gay man ("fruit"). However, moments later she was in tears. By contrast, Bernard-Henri Lévy has on multiple occasions attacked Godin and his followers, and Ann Coulter pressed charges in 2005 when she narrowly evaded a pie at the University of Arizona
. Activist David Horowitz said of his pieing, "These attacks are sinister. The person who throws a pie is saying, ‘I hate you. I don't want you to speak.' I never saw it coming. And it took away my dignity. When you're lecturing, you're supposed to have an authority. But a pie turns it into a food fight."
On January 25, 2010, Canada's Fisheries and Oceans Minister
Gail Shea
was hit with a pie in her face while touring the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington, Ont, in an act of protest against the seal hunt in Canada by animal rights group PETA
. PETA said in a release that it was part of its campaign “to stop the government’s ill-advised sanction of the slaughter of seals.”
On July 19, 2011, Rupert Murdoch
was pied in London
during a Parliamentary
hearing on the News International phone hacking scandal.
When former Canadian prime minister
Jean Chrétien
was hit in the face with a pie by a protester in Prince Edward Island
in 2000. His attacker initially was given jail time but eventually received a conditional sentence.
A woman who missed Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach
with a pie at the annual Calgary Stampede breakfast in 2007, and hit a security official instead, was sentenced to 30 days in jail. So was a woman who threw a pie at Calgary
Mayor Dave Bronconnier
in the summer of 2007.
In 2003, a protester who hit then-Alberta premier Ralph Klein in the face with a pie at the Stampede breakfast
was convicted of assault and ordered to serve a 30-day intermittent jail sentence.
Jonathan May-Bowles pied Rupert Murdoch in July 2011 during a highly publicized testimony before a British parliamentary
committee in connection with the News International phone hacking scandal. May-Bowles was sentenced to serve a six-week prison sentence at Wandsworth Prison in London
; this sentence has subsequently been reduced to four weeks. The Murdoch media empire remains under fire as investigators continue to probe reports of other phone hacking.
In August 2010, a Michigan State University
student named Ahlam Mohsem, 23, threw a Dutch apple pie into Michigan
Senator Carl Levin
's face and was arrested on assault and battery charges. The police also charged a man who allegedly distracted the senator before the pie was thrown. Mohsem said she threw the pie to protest the Senator's support for war crimes by Israel.
This is a popular fund-raising event with schools and social or charitable organizations. Students can pie teachers, professors, or other administrators to ease the tension while still raising money and/or awareness about a cause.
The pie in question can include a variety of messy substances, usually whipped cream
, custard
, non-dairy dessert topping or simply shaving foam, placed in a pie tin or sometimes simply piled onto a paper plate.
One additional option is allowing the person who has purchased or won the opportunity to use the pie to also fill it, usually with a variety of extremely messy dessert toppings: chocolate, cherries, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, etc. Plastic bags for the victim to protect their clothing and hair are optional. Witnesses standing too close to the victim(s) may be splattered.
, New York Yankees
pitcher A. J. Burnett
pies teammates who drive in or score the winning run in a walk-off win (a game won on a hit by the last batter).
Burnett's "pies" are filled with either shaving cream
or whipped cream
. Burnett has pied Alex Rodriguez
, Johnny Damon
, Melky Cabrera
, Jorge Posada
, Hideki Matsui
, Nick Swisher
, (twice) Robinson Canó
(twice), Francisco Cervelli
, Juan Miranda
, Mark Teixeira
, Jerry Hairston, Jr.
, and most recently Marcus Thames
. Burnett usually pies the player while he is being interviewed on the field by a TV reporter.
The pieing tradition in baseball has extended beyond game-winning hits to any outstanding performance. Rookie Stephen Strasburg
was pied by teammate John Lannan
after his historic debut when he struck out 14 Pittsburgh
batters. Matt Garza
of the Tampa Bay Rays
was pied by Evan Longoria
after Garza pitched the first no-hitter
in Rays history July 26, 2010.
On July 26, 2010, the Florida Marlins
left fielder Chris Coghlan
injured himself while pieing teammate Wes Helms
after Helms's single won the game in the bottom of the 11th inning. In response, manager Edwin Rodriguez
said that there will be no more such celebratory antics.
J.P. Arencibia was pied in the face after hitting two home runs in his MLB debut against the Rays.
Pie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....
at a person or persons. This can be a political action when the target is an authority figure, politician, or celebrity and can be used as a means of protesting against the target's political beliefs, or against perceived arrogance or vanity. Perpetrators generally regard the act as a form of ridicule to embarrass and humiliate the victim. In some U.S. states pieing may conform to definitions of the crime of battery, but not assault.
Pieing and pie fights are a staple of slapstick comedy, and pie "tosses" are also common charity fundraising events, especially in schools.
Slapstick
Pieing has its origins in the "pie in the face" gag from slapstickSlapstick
Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
comedy, first seen in the 1909 Essanay Studios
Essanay Studios
The Essanay Film Manufacturing Company was an American motion picture studio. It is best known today for its series of Charlie Chaplin comedies of 1915.-Founding:...
silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Mr. Flip
Mr. Flip
Mr. Flip is a 1909 silent comedy film made by Essanay Studios, directed by Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson and starring Ben Turpin. This film is believed to have been the first instance of a comedian being hit in the face with a pie when Ben Turpin was struck. However, the pie Turpin was hit...
starring Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin was a cross-eyed American comedian and actor, best remembered for his work in silent films.-Personal life:...
. In the story, Turpin has a pie pushed into his face for taking liberties with a woman.
Beginning in 1913 with That Ragtime Band
That Ragtime Band
That Ragtime Band is a 1913 short comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and featuring Fatty Arbuckle.-Cast:* Ford Sterling - Prof. Smelts* Mabel Normand - Mabel* Nick Cogley - Rival musician* Alice Davenport* Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle* Raymond Hatton...
and A Noise from the Deep
A Noise from the Deep
A Noise from the Deep is a 1913 comedy short starring Mabel Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. The film was directed by Mack Sennett and also features the Keystone Cops on horseback...
, filmmaker Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
became known for using one or two thrown pies in many of his comedy shorts. Sennett had a personal rule about who received the pies: "A mother never gets hit with a custard pie ... Mothers-in-law, yes. But mothers? Never."
At least a half dozen films have been made incorporating extended pie-throwing battles. The first was Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's Behind the Screen
Behind the Screen
Behind the Screen is a 1916 short silent film written by, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, and also starring Eric Campbell and Edna Purviance. The film takes place in a movie studio; Chaplin plays a stagehand named David while Campbell, a large man, plays Goliath, his supervisor...
released in 1916. The definitive pie fight film is The Battle of the Century
The Battle of the Century
The Battle of the Century is a 1927 Hal Roach two-reeler starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, who, although just teamed, had yet to take on their recognisable Stan and Ollie characters on a more or less permanent basis. A young Lou Costello can be seen in an early scene as a member of the...
(1927) starring Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel
Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
and Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy
Oliver Hardy was an American comic actor famous as one half of Laurel and Hardy, the classic double act that began in the era of silent films and lasted nearly 30 years, from 1927 to 1955.-Early life:...
, using 3,000 pies. Our Gang
Our Gang
Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively...
's Shivering Shakespeare
Shivering Shakespeare
Shivering Shakespeare is an Our Gang short film directed by Robert A. McGowan under the pseudonym "Anthony Mack". Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 95th Our Gang short to be released.-Plot:...
(1930) winds up with an auditorium full of people throwing pies. The 1935 short subject called Keystone Hotel
Keystone Hotel (film)
Keystone Hotel is a 1935 2-reel comedy short subject, directed by Ralph Staub.The story follows the arrival of the cross-eyed Count Drewa Blank at a downtown hotel, to judge a beauty contest. While downstairs various parties try to sway the Count's decision, the house detective investigates...
featured a large pie fight ending with the camera taking a pie. In 1941, another major pie fight film appeared: The Three Stooges' In the Sweet Pie and Pie
In the Sweet Pie and Pie
In the Sweet Pie and Pie is the 58th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959.-Plot:...
. A Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
film involving pies was the 1965 comedy, The Great Race
The Great Race
The Great Race is a 1965 slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk, Keenan Wynn,...
; known for having the largest pie fight in cinematic history. Its $200,000 pie fight scene used one large cake and 4,000 pies, and took five days to shoot.
There are many instances in the Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
series of cartoons where characters "pie" each other in the face. Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
repeatedly hits Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
with cream pies during a scene in Slick Hare. In Shishkabugs, Bugs Bunny releases a spring-loaded pie into the face of the king, causing the royal cook Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...
to be led away to a dungeon. The episode Daffy Dilly has Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
trying to cure a dying millionaire by getting him to laugh. After he achieves this inadvertently, by landing in a cake, Daffy is hired as a sort of household jester and ends the cartoon by getting repeatedly pelted with cakes and pies.
In one of the Batman
Batman (comic book)
Batman is an ongoing comic book series featuring the DC Comics hero of the same name. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27, published in May 1939. Batman proved to be so popular that a self-titled ongoing comic book series began publication in the spring of 1940...
comic books, The Joker once concocted an elaborate scheme whose sole purpose was to hit Batman in the face with a pie.
Many comedy routines have used a pie as a gag, including ones performed by Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
and Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
.
Celebrities who have been pied
Alison SweeneyAlison Sweeney
Alison Sweeney is an American dramatic actress and reality show host. Sweeney is best known for her portrayal of Samantha "Sami" Gene Brady on NBC's long running Days of our Lives, a role she has played under contract with the show since January 6, 1993...
was pied on the show Days of Our Lives
Days of our Lives
Days of our Lives is a long running daytime soap opera broadcast on the NBC television network. It is one of the longest-running scripted television programs in the world, airing nearly every weekday in the United States since November 8, 1965. It has since been syndicated to many countries around...
.
Brett Favre
Brett Favre
Brett Lorenzo Favre is a former American football quarterback who spent the majority of his career with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League . He was a 20-year veteran of the NFL, having played quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons , Green Bay Packers , New York Jets and Minnesota...
was pied at the 1999 Fox Kids Bowl along with Jerome Bettis
Jerome Bettis
Jerome Abram "The Bus" Bettis is a retired American football halfback who played for the NFL's Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. Bettis is considered one of the best big backs ever because his footwork and power, and is currently fifth on the National Football League's all-time...
.
Late IndyCar driver Dan Wheldon
Dan Wheldon
Daniel Clive "Dan" Wheldon was a British racing driver from England. He was the 2005 Indy Racing League IndyCar Series champion, and winner of the Indianapolis 500 in both 2005 and 2011...
was a well-known prankster who pied friend Scott Dixon
Scott Dixon
Scott Ronald Dixon, MNZM is a New Zealand motor racer who became the most successful all-time driver in the Indy Racing League championship in the United States when he won the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in August 2009. This took his total to 21 wins...
when he won the 2008 IndyCar Championship.
Political acts
The probable originator of pieing as a political act was Thomas King Forcade, the founder of High Times magazine. In 1970, Forcade pied Otto N. Larsen, the Chairman of the President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography; his action was called the first Yippie pieing. Aron Kay, also a Yippie, went on to take up Forcade's pieing tactics. Kay pied, among many others, William F. Buckley, Phyllis SchlaflyPhyllis Schlafly
Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly is a Constitutional lawyer and an American politically conservative activist and author who founded the Eagle Forum. She is known for her opposition to modern feminism ideas and for her campaign against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment...
, G. Gordon Liddy
G. Gordon Liddy
George Gordon Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed from July–September 1971, during Richard Nixon's presidency. Separately, along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy organized and directed the Watergate burglaries of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in...
, E. Howard Hunt
E. Howard Hunt
Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was an American intelligence officer and writer. Hunt served for many years as a CIA officer. Hunt, with G...
, and Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. A disciple of Aron Kay, Thom Higgins, pied singer and anti-gay rights activist Anita Bryant
Anita Bryant
Anita Jane Bryant is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and gay rights opponent. She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Paper Roses", which reached #5...
in Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
, in 1977 (audio footage of the incident is included in the Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba
Chumbawamba is a British musical group who have, over a career spanning nearly three decades, played punk rock, pop-influenced music, world music, and folk music...
song Just Desserts, a homage to the concept of pieing). Kay retired in 1992 after pieing right-wing activist Randall Terry
Randall Terry
Randall Almira Terry is an American pro-life activist and candidate for the Democratic Party's nomination for President in 2012. Terry founded the pro-life organization Operation Rescue. The group became particularly prominent beginning in 1987 for blockading the entrances to abortion clinics;...
. Kay appears in cartoon form in a 2003 animated music video, "Death penalty for pot" by Benedict Arnold and The Traitors, where he and Dana Beal
Dana Beal
Irvin Dana Beal is an American social and political activist, best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana...
pie George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
(at 2 minutes and 33 seconds into the video).
Concerning Kay, an article in the San Francisco Examiner says: "He considers the Three Stooges, whom he began watching on TV as a kid, as the true fathers of pie-throwing."
Recently, the Belgian anarchist and surrealist Noël Godin
Noël Godin
Noël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
has gained a following for pieing figures whom he believes take themselves too seriously, such as filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
during the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. His favorite target was Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Bernard-Henri Lévy is a French public intellectual, philosopher and journalist. Often referred to today, in France, simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" movement in 1976.-Early life:...
. Godin stated that the men he most desired to pie were Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
, John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
, Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Pope John Paul II. Godin's popularity has inspired many copycats.
A noted victim of pieing was Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
founder Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
who was pied in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
in 1998. A computer game was later released in which Gates' head pops up around the screen and the object is to "pie" as many of his heads as possible in the allocated time.
The anonymous Biotic Baking Brigade
Biotic Baking Brigade
The Biotic Baking Brigade is a loosely connected group of activists famous for throwing pies in the faces of such figures as Bill Gates, San Francisco mayors Willie Brown, and Gavin Newsom, anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps, economist Milton Friedman, Swedish King Carl Gustaf, former Canadian Prime...
has pied or attempted to pie, among others, conservative pundits Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter
Ann Hart Coulter is an American lawyer, conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events...
and David Horowitz; and Fred Phelps
Fred Phelps
Fred Waldron Phelps, Sr. is an American pastor heading the Westboro Baptist Church , an independent Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas...
, the controversial leader of the Westboro Baptist Church
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent Baptist church known for its extreme stance against homosexuality and its protest activities, which include picketing funerals and desecrating the American flag. The church is widely described as a hate group and is monitored as such by the...
. Coulter has also been attacked by the "terrorist" group Al Pieda. The Canadian group the Entartistes
Entartistes
The entartistes are a Canadian satirical political group whose members throw cream pies at political and cultural figures whom the group deems to be in need of public embarrassment....
, founded by Rhinoceros Party of Canada founder François Gourd
François Gourd
François Gourd is a Canadian political figure and entertainer, who has been involved in the Rhinoceros Party of Canada and the entartistes, two satirical political movements...
, has also pied many, including then-Prime Minister of Canada
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
. In 2003 in the city of Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
they pied Ralph Klein, the premier of the Canadian province of Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, saying in their press release: "Is it surprising to see Ralph Klein opposing the Kyoto Accord for the right of big corporations to pollute, the same corporations that finance his campaigns?"
"The pie gives power back to the people because so many feel powerless in the face of big politicians and industrialists", explained Pope-Tart (a pseudonym), a member of the Entartistes. Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
columnist Gersh Kuntzman
Gersh Kuntzman
Gersh Kuntzman is a New York City-based journalist. Previously, he worked for the New York Post, writing the column, "MetroGnome," which ran from 1994-2004. He also had a weekly column for Newsweek online that ran from Jan. 2001-July 2005...
wrote that pieing "deserves to be one of the most celebrated traditions in our so-called culture."
Sometimes pieing targets suffer the prank with good humor. Godard was very pleased at being pied; he intervened with the Cannes authorities on behalf of Noël Godin
Noël Godin
Noël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
to prevent him from being arrested. Anti-gay campaigner Anita Bryant, upon being pied by a gay activist on television, joked that "at least it's a fruit pie", apparently making a pun on the derogatory term for a gay man ("fruit"). However, moments later she was in tears. By contrast, Bernard-Henri Lévy has on multiple occasions attacked Godin and his followers, and Ann Coulter pressed charges in 2005 when she narrowly evaded a pie at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
. Activist David Horowitz said of his pieing, "These attacks are sinister. The person who throws a pie is saying, ‘I hate you. I don't want you to speak.' I never saw it coming. And it took away my dignity. When you're lecturing, you're supposed to have an authority. But a pie turns it into a food fight."
On January 25, 2010, Canada's Fisheries and Oceans Minister
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, frequently referred to as DFO , is the department within the government of Canada that is responsible for developing and implementing policies and programs in support of Canada's economic, ecological and scientific interests in oceans and inland waters...
Gail Shea
Gail Shea
Gail Shea, PC, MP is a Canadian politician, currently the Member of Parliament for Egmont. She was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 2000 to 2007, representing the electoral district of Tignish-DeBlois as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.As...
was hit with a pie in her face while touring the Canada Centre for Inland Waters in Burlington, Ont, in an act of protest against the seal hunt in Canada by animal rights group PETA
Peta
Peta can refer to:* peta-, an SI prefix denoting a factor of 1015* Peta, Greece, a town in Greece* Peta, the Pāli word for a Preta, or hungry ghost in Buddhism* Peta Wilson, an Australian actress and model* Peta Todd, English glamour model...
. PETA said in a release that it was part of its campaign “to stop the government’s ill-advised sanction of the slaughter of seals.”
On July 19, 2011, Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
was pied in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
during a Parliamentary
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
hearing on the News International phone hacking scandal.
Canada
When former Canadian prime minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
was hit in the face with a pie by a protester in Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
in 2000. His attacker initially was given jail time but eventually received a conditional sentence.
A woman who missed Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach
Ed Stelmach
Edward Michael "Ed" Stelmach, MLA is a Canadian politician and served as the 13th Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 2006 to 2011. The grandson of Ukrainian immigrants, Stelmach was born and raised on a farm near Lamont and speaks fluent Ukrainian. He spent his entire pre-political adult life as a...
with a pie at the annual Calgary Stampede breakfast in 2007, and hit a security official instead, was sentenced to 30 days in jail. So was a woman who threw a pie at Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
Mayor Dave Bronconnier
Dave Bronconnier
David 'Dave' Thomas Bronconnier is a Canadian politician, who served as the 35th Mayor of Calgary, Alberta.- Biography :...
in the summer of 2007.
In 2003, a protester who hit then-Alberta premier Ralph Klein in the face with a pie at the Stampede breakfast
Calgary Stampede
The Calgary Stampede is an annual rodeo, exhibition and festival held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The ten-day event, which bills itself as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth", attracts over one million visitors per year and features one of the world's largest rodeos, a parade, midway,...
was convicted of assault and ordered to serve a 30-day intermittent jail sentence.
U.K
Jonathan May-Bowles pied Rupert Murdoch in July 2011 during a highly publicized testimony before a British parliamentary
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
committee in connection with the News International phone hacking scandal. May-Bowles was sentenced to serve a six-week prison sentence at Wandsworth Prison in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
; this sentence has subsequently been reduced to four weeks. The Murdoch media empire remains under fire as investigators continue to probe reports of other phone hacking.
United States
In August 2010, a Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
student named Ahlam Mohsem, 23, threw a Dutch apple pie into Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
Senator Carl Levin
Carl Levin
Carl Milton Levin is a Jewish-American United States Senator from Michigan, serving since 1979. He is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He is a member of the Democratic Party....
's face and was arrested on assault and battery charges. The police also charged a man who allegedly distracted the senator before the pie was thrown. Mohsem said she threw the pie to protest the Senator's support for war crimes by Israel.
Charity
At charity fund raisers, a pie-toss event usually involves some well-known figure, generally a person either in a position of authority or fame, who is intended as the "victim". People attending the event pay for or bid on the opportunity to smoosh the volunteer victim in the face with a custard pie; throwing is generally not allowed anymore as the impact can cause injury, and the smoosh is usually in slow-motion and applied without great pressure. Although this takes the element of chance out of the event, it allows the opportunity to smear pie more thoroughly in the victim's face and potentially through their hair.This is a popular fund-raising event with schools and social or charitable organizations. Students can pie teachers, professors, or other administrators to ease the tension while still raising money and/or awareness about a cause.
The pie in question can include a variety of messy substances, usually whipped cream
Whipped cream
Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....
, custard
Custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Depending on how much egg or thickener is used, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce , to a thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used as...
, non-dairy dessert topping or simply shaving foam, placed in a pie tin or sometimes simply piled onto a paper plate.
One additional option is allowing the person who has purchased or won the opportunity to use the pie to also fill it, usually with a variety of extremely messy dessert toppings: chocolate, cherries, caramel sauce, strawberry sauce, etc. Plastic bags for the victim to protect their clothing and hair are optional. Witnesses standing too close to the victim(s) may be splattered.
Sports
In Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
pitcher A. J. Burnett
A. J. Burnett
Allan James "A. J." Burnett is a right-handed Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the New York Yankees. Previously, he played for the Florida Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays...
pies teammates who drive in or score the winning run in a walk-off win (a game won on a hit by the last batter).
Burnett's "pies" are filled with either shaving cream
Shaving cream
Shaving cream is a substance that is applied to the face or wherever else hair grows, to provide lubrication and avoid razor burn during shaving. Shaving cream is often bought in a spray can, but can also be purchased in tubs or tubes. Shaving cream in a can is commonly dispensed as a foam or a gel...
or whipped cream
Whipped cream
Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....
. Burnett has pied Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...
, Johnny Damon
Johnny Damon
Johnny David Damon is an American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter. From 2000–2008, he was third among active players in runs and seventh in hits and stolen bases . He is currently second among active leaders in triples , five behind Carl Crawford...
, Melky Cabrera
Melky Cabrera
Melky Astacio Cabrera is a Major League Baseball outfielder for the San Francisco Giants.-Minors:Cabrera was signed by the New York Yankees on November 13, 2001, at age 17...
, Jorge Posada
Jorge Posada
Jorge Rafael Posada Villeta is a Major League Baseball player who is currently a free agent and has played his entire career for the New York Yankees. He served as the Yankees primary catcher for most of his career, though following off-season knee surgery, he was moved to designated hitter for...
, Hideki Matsui
Hideki Matsui
is a Japanese Major League Baseball designated hitter and outfielder. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.After playing the first ten seasons of his career for the Yomiuri Giants of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, he played the next seven seasons, from 2003–2009, for the New York...
, Nick Swisher
Nick Swisher
Nicholas Thompson "Nick" Swisher is an outfielder for the New York Yankees. Swisher is a switch hitter who throws left-handed....
, (twice) Robinson Canó
Robinson Canó
Robinson José Canó Mercedes is a Dominican baseball player who currently plays as a second baseman for the New York Yankees.-Family and early life:...
(twice), Francisco Cervelli
Francisco Cervelli
Francisco Cervelli is a Major League Baseball catcher for the New York Yankees. He was an international signee by the Yankees in and played in the 2009 World Baseball Classic for the Italian team. He is Hispanic of Italian descent...
, Juan Miranda
Juan Miranda
Juan Miguel Miranda is a Cuban Major League Baseball first baseman.-Cuba:The 5-foot-11 Miranda batted .303 with 27 homers for Pinar Del Rio in Cuba's Serie Nacional from to . Miranda was on the Cuban national team.He defected to the Dominican Republic in early 2004, on his seventh attempt...
, Mark Teixeira
Mark Teixeira
Mark Charles Teixeira , nicknamed "Tex" is an American Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees. Mostly a first baseman, he has also played third base and in the outfield...
, Jerry Hairston, Jr.
Jerry Hairston, Jr.
Jerry Wayne Hairston, Jr. is a Mexican-American professional baseball utility player.-Professional career:...
, and most recently Marcus Thames
Marcus Thames
Marcus Markley Thames is an American professional baseball outfielder. He has previously played for the New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers....
. Burnett usually pies the player while he is being interviewed on the field by a TV reporter.
The pieing tradition in baseball has extended beyond game-winning hits to any outstanding performance. Rookie Stephen Strasburg
Stephen Strasburg
Stephen James Strasburg is a right-handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals, who selected him with the first pick in the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft...
was pied by teammate John Lannan
John Lannan
John Edward Lannan is a left-handed starting pitcher in the Washington Nationals organization....
after his historic debut when he struck out 14 Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
batters. Matt Garza
Matt Garza
Matthew Scott Garza is a United States professional baseball pitcher with the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball.-Amateur career:He attended Washington Union High School and Fresno State.-Minnesota Twins:...
of the Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
was pied by Evan Longoria
Evan Longoria
Evan Michael Longoria is a Major League Baseball third baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays. Formerly, Longoria was a star infielder for the Long Beach State University baseball team, the Cape Cod League MVP, and the Big West Co-Player of the Year.He made his major league debut for the Rays in , and...
after Garza pitched the first no-hitter
No-hitter
A no-hitter is a baseball game in which one team has no hits. In Major League Baseball, the team must be without hits during the entire game, and the game must be at least nine innings. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is said to have "thrown a no-hitter"...
in Rays history July 26, 2010.
On July 26, 2010, the Florida Marlins
Florida Marlins
The Miami Marlins are a professional baseball team based in Miami, Florida, United States. Established in 1993 as an expansion franchise called the Florida Marlins, the Marlins are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. The Marlins played their home games at...
left fielder Chris Coghlan
Chris Coghlan
Christopher B. Coghlan is a Major League Baseball outfielder and second baseman for the Florida Marlins.-Career:Coghlan attended East Lake High School in Tarpon Springs, Florida...
injured himself while pieing teammate Wes Helms
Wes Helms
Wesley Ray Helms is an American professional baseball third baseman, first baseman, and outfielder but is currently a free agent. He bats and throws right-handed.-Professional career:...
after Helms's single won the game in the bottom of the 11th inning. In response, manager Edwin Rodriguez
Edwin Rodriguez
Edwin Rodríguez Morales is the former manager of the Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball's National League. He also played Major League Baseball briefly in the early 1980s as an infielder.-Playing career:...
said that there will be no more such celebratory antics.
J.P. Arencibia was pied in the face after hitting two home runs in his MLB debut against the Rays.
See also
- EggingEggingEgging refers to the act of throwing eggs at houses, cars, or people. Egging is a criminal offence in most areas. The eggs are usually raw, but are sometimes hard-boiled or expired. This can be considered vandalism....
- Glitter bombingGlitter bombingGlitter bombing is an emerging act of civil disobedience in the United States in which activists throw glitter on people at public events. Glitter bombers have frequently been motivated by their target's anti-gay beliefs. Glitter bombing is "technically assault and battery" according to Mark R...
- List of people who have been pied
- ShoeingShoeingShoeing, throwing shoes, showing the sole of one's shoe or using shoes to insult are forms of protest in many parts of the world.Incidents where shoes were thrown at political figures have taken place in Australia, India, Ireland, Israel, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and most notably,...
- Slapstick comedy
Further reading
- Noël GodinNoël GodinNoël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
(1989) Anthologie de la subversion carabinée. Éditions L'Âge d'Homme; ISBN 2-8251-0715-8. - Noël GodinNoël GodinNoël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
(1995) Crème et châtiment: Mémoire d'un entarteur. Éditions Albin Michel; ISBN 2-226-07824-X. - Noël GodinNoël GodinNoël Godin is a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious cream pie flinger or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with cream pies...
(2005) Entartons, entartons les pompeux cornichons! Flammarion; ISBN 2-08-068546-5. - Agent Apple. Pie Any Means Necessary: The Biotic Baking Brigade Cookbook. Edinburgh: AK Press, 2004. ISBN 978-1-902593-88-3
External links
- Pied Politicians and Corporate CEOs
- The Pied Sniper: Noel Godin's Flavorful Terrorism, by D. Trull
- The Medium is the Meringue, an article from Mother JonesMother Jones (magazine)Mother Jones is an American independent news organization, featuring investigative and breaking news reporting on politics, the environment, human rights, and culture. Mother Jones has been nominated for 23 National Magazine Awards and has won six times, including for General Excellence in 2001,...
, March/April 1999