Pieing
Brought to a widespread audience as the "pie-in-face" gag in silent film comedies, pieing may sometimes be intended as a harmless practical joke.
However, it can also be used as a means of political protest directed against an authority figure, politician, industrialist, or celebrity,[1] and perpetrators may regard the act as a form of ridicule.
It made its first appearance in a music hall sketch called Mumming Birds (1904) produced by the English theatre impresario Fred Karno for the Hackney Empire in London.
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.
Original plans called for Dr. Strangelove (1964) to end with a pie fight; the scene, though filmed, was ultimately deemed excessively farcical by director Stanley Kubrick and removed from the final cut.
In Shishkabugs (1962), 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.
also features contraptions designed to hit participants in the face with multiple cream pies, often as punishment for losing, or sometimes as a reward for winning, a game performed on the show.
The World Custard Pie Throwing Championships take place annually in the village of Coxheath in Kent, England.
Kay pied, among many others, William F. Buckley Jr., Phyllis Schlafly, G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt, and Andy Warhol.
[20] 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.
Other victims include designer Karl Lagerfeld, American singer Kenny Rogers, former Dutch finance minister Gerrit Zalm and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
[26] "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.
Jean-Luc Godard was very pleased at being pied and said "this is what happens when silent movies meet talking pictures"; he intervened with the Cannes authorities on behalf of Noël Godin to prevent him from being arrested.
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.
"[30] On 19 July 2011, Rupert Murdoch was pied in London during a Parliamentary hearing on the News International phone hacking scandal.
[18][31][32][33][34][35] On 9 May 2017, Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Australian airline Qantas, had a speech interrupted by a man who shoved a pie in his face.
According to former US president Donald Trump's former fixer Michael Cohen, his boss often referred to the Bill Gates incident and instructed his security detail to look out for flying pies.
Trump has also expressed a disdain for fruit-based projectiles, stating under oath that "you can be killed if that happens.”[36] Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien was hit in the face with a pie by a protester in Prince Edward Island in 2000.
[30] 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 prison.
[30] 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 prison sentence.
[39] The pies were thrown by Gorka Ovejero Bengoa, Deputy Mayor of Arruazu at the time, Julio Martín Villanueva and Ibon García Garrido, protesting against a high-speed rail line.
[42] In September 2001, the Swedish king Carl XVI Gustaf was visiting Varberg when a 16-year-old boy threw a strawberry tart at him.
[46] Comedian Jonathan May-Bowles (also known as Jonny Marbles) 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.
Burnett pied Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Melky Cabrera, Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui, Nick Swisher (twice), Robinson Canó (twice), Francisco Cervelli,[56] Juan Miranda, Mark Teixeira, Jerry Hairston Jr., Marcus Thames, Brett Gardner, Alex Presley, Josh Harrison and Russell Martin.
During his tenure as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, utility infielder Tomás Pérez would commonly pie teammates during post-game interviews.
Rookie Stephen Strasburg was pied by teammate John Lannan after his historic debut when he struck out 14 Pittsburgh batters.
