Everything about Pieing totally explained
Pieing is the act of throwing a
pie at someone. Originally a staple of
slapstick comedy, pieing has also come to be used for political purposes, in which throwing a pie at an authority figure, politician, or celebrity is a means of protesting against the target's political beliefs, or against a perceived flaw —
arrogance,
hubris — in the target's character. (A variation of pieing, when the target is hit with a
cake instead of a pie, is called "caking".)
History
The political act of pieing has its origins in the "pie in the face" gag from
slapstick comedy (first popularized by
movie director Mack Sennett around the year 1914 in his
Keystone Cops silent movies). Throwing pies as a comedy staple came into its own in the
Laurel & Hardy classic short film, "Battle of the Century" (1927) which, according to legend, required four thousand pies. Pie-throwing became a convention of early slapstick movies made by the
Three Stooges,
Aron Kay, also a Yippie, went on to take up Forcade's pieing tactics and 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 subsequently pied, among many others,
William F. Buckley,
G. Gordon Liddy,
E. Howard Hunt,
William Shatner, and
Andy Warhol. Kay retired in 1992 after pieing
right-wing activist
Randall Terry. His exploits live on though. He 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 a
November 12,
1998 San Francisco Examiner article writes: "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, most notably
Bill Gates and 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.
The anonymous
Biotic Baking Brigade has pied or attempted to pie, among others, conservative pundits
Ann Coulter and
David Horowitz;
Green Party politician
Ralph Nader; and
Fred Phelps, the controversial leader of the
Westboro Baptist Church. 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 Gertz 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. By contrast, Bernard-Henri Lévy has on multiple occasions attacked
Noël Godin and his followers, and Ann Coulter pressed charges in 2005 when she was pied at the
University of Arizona.
(External Link
) 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."
Anti-gay activist
Anita Bryant said, upon being pied, that at least it was a "
fruit" pie, referring to the gay slur.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pieing'.
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