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Information about Pieing

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)[1] which, according to legend, required four thousand pies. Pie-throwing became a convention of early slapstick movies made by the Three Stooges,[1][1] and others. Other comedians and cartoon characters famous for pieing are Bugs Bunny, Charlie Chaplin, Monty Python, and Soupy Sales.

The probable originator of pieing as a political act was Aron Kay [1], a Yippie, who 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).[2] 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).[3]

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."[4]

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, among others, conservative pundits Ann Coulter (though it is important to note that the would-be piers didn't hit Ann) 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?"[5]

"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.[6] Newsweek columnist Gertz Kuntzman wrote that pieing "deserves to be one of the most celebrated traditions in our so-called culture."<ref name="multiple" />

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, even though they missed.[2] 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."<ref name="multiple" /> Anti-gay activist Anita Bryant said, upon being pied, that at least it was a "fruit" pie, referring to the gay slur.

See also

References

1. ^ "The Battle of the Century (1927)". Internet Movie Database.
2. ^ "Pie-Faced: Why throwing a pie at someone who deserves it is one of the most celebrated traditions in our so-called culture". By Gersh Kuntzman. Newsweek, April 25 2005.
3. ^ "Death penalty for pot". Aron Kay pieing George Bush and John Ashcroft in an "animated music video (2003) by northern California artist/animator Brad Frost, of the song 'Death Penalty For Pot,' by the band Benedict Arnold & The Traitors." [3] [4] [5].
4. ^ "A Long Career of Pitching Pastries". By Rachel Gordon. San Francisco Examiner. November 12, 1998.
5. ^ "The Art of Pieing. Nothing cuts through the veneer of the powerful like a banana cream". By Tooker Gomberg. Now (Toronto). July 17-23, 2003.
6. ^ "Pied Snipers". By Andrew Duffy. Southam News. January 31, 1999.

External links

Further reading

  • Noël Godin (1989) Anthologie de la subversion carabinée. Éditions L'Âge d'Homme; ISBN 2-8251-0715-8.
  • Noël Godin (1995) Crème et châtiment: Mémoire d'un entarteur. Éditions Albin Michel; ISBN 2-226-07824-X.
  • Noël Godin (2005) Entartons, entartons les pompeux cornichons! Flammarion; ISBN 2-08-068546-5.
pie is a baked food, with a baked shell usually made of pastry dough that covers or completely contains a filling of fruit, meat, fish, vegetables, cheeses, creams, chocolate, custards, nuts, or other sweet or savoury ingredients.
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Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated physical violence or activities (e.g., a character being hit in the face with a frying pan or running full speed into a wall).
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Arrogance or arrogant may refer to:
  • Arrogance (band)
  • The Arrogants
  • American Arrogance, album
  • Excessive Pride

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For the supervillain, see .
Hubris or hybris (Greek ὕβρις), according to its modern usage, is exaggerated self pride or self-confidence (overbearing pride), often resulting in fatal
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Key Addressed Crypto Encapsulation, or CAKE is a network protocol that lives on top of the Internet Protocol, SMTP, or any of a wide variety of other protocols. The basic idea of the protocol is to use public key identifiers as the base addressing scheme for the protocol.
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film director is a person who directs the making of a film.[1] A film director visualizes the script, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision.
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Mack Sennett (January 17, 1880 – November 5, 1960) was an innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy.
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Keystone Cops was a series of silent film comedies featuring an incompetent group of policemen produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
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silent film is a motion picture with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue.

The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent
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Laurel and Hardy were the American-based comedy team of thin, British-born Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and heavy, American-born Oliver Hardy (1892-1957). They became famous during the early half of the 20th century for their work in motion pictures, and also appeared on stage
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The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the mid 20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. They were commonly known by their first names: 'Moe, Larry, & Curly', and 'Moe, Larry, & Shemp', among other lineups.
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Bugs Bunny is an animated rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated films produced by Warner Bros., one of which, 1958's Knighty Knight Bugs
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Sir Charles Chaplin

Birth name Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr.
Born 16 March 1889(1889--)
Walworth, London, England
Died 25 November 1977 (aged 88)
Vevey, Switzerland


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Soupy Sales

Birth name Milton Supman
Born January 8 1926 (1926--) (age 81)
Franklinton, North Carolina
Died

Years active
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The Youth International Party (whose adherents were known as Yippies, a variant on "Hippies" that is also used to designate the surviving circles of activists who came out of the now-defunct YIP) was a highly theatrical political party established in the United States in
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LGBT social movements share related goals of social acceptance of homosexuality, bisexuality, or transgenderism. LGBT refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their movements include the Gay and Lesbian Rights Movement
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Anita Jane Bryant (born March 25, 1940, in Barnsdall, Oklahoma) is an American singer. In the 1970s she became the spokesperson for Florida orange juice, making a series of television commercials for them.
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Des Moines, Iowa

Flag
Seal
Nickname: "DSM", "The 515", "DeMo", "City of Skywalks", "The Hartford of the West"
Location in Polk County and in the State of Iowa
Coordinates:
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William Francis "Bill" Buckley, Jr. (born November 24, 1925) is an American author and conservative commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted the television show Firing Line
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George Gordon Battle Liddy (born November 30, 1930) was the chief operative for White House Plumbers unit that existed during several years of Richard Nixon's Presidency. Along with E.
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Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. (October 9 1918 - January 23 2007) was an American author and spy. He worked for the CIA and later the White House under President Richard Nixon. Hunt, with G.
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William Shatner

Shatner at the Star Trek Italian Club 2005 Convention

Born March 22 1931 (1931--) (age 76)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada


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Andy Warhol

Warhol in 1977.
Birth name Andrew Warhola
July 6 1928(1928--)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
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right-wing, the political right, and the right are terms used in the spectrum of Left-Right Politics, and much like the opposite appellation of Left-wing, it has a broad variety of definitions: the same name can, in politics, sometimes mean different things.
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Randall A. Terry is an American political and conservative religious activist and musician. He founded the pro-life organization Operation Rescue in 1987 and led the group for its first 10 years. He has been arrested over 40 times for his anti-abortion activities.
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Dana Beal (born January 9, 1947 in Ravenna, Ohio is a social and political activist, best known for his efforts to legalize marijuana. He is a long-term activist in the Youth International Party (Yippies) and founder of the Yipster Times.
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George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the forty-third and current President of the United States of America, originally inaugurated on January 20, 2001. Bush was first elected in the 2000 presidential election, and reelected for a second term in the 2004 presidential election.
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John David Ashcroft (born May 9 1942) is an American politician who was the 79th United States Attorney General. He served during the first term of President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2005. Ashcroft was previously the Governor of Missouri (1985 – 1993) and a U.S.
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November 12 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

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