Pi Day Soon to be Hurled

Unless you've been living in hermit-land as of late, you're sure to know that Epic Pi Day is fast approaching and epic in the fact that it's a once-in-a-life-time event.  This year the date is extra geekified, being 3.14.15 9:26:53, so put on your party hats and be prepared...or should I say pie-pared.  On this W/E Wednesday, in honor of the upcoming and in your face Pi Day, I'll explore the classic "Pie in the face" gag. The actual act of pies-in-the-face goes back at least as far as ancient Hieroglyphics, so I'll just concentrate on those funny film types. 

The very first "pieing" in cinema was accomplished in the 1909 short film, "Mr. Flip" with Ben Turpin being the recipient.  In the clip above, skip ahead to minute 3:37 to see this landmark pieing.  Apparently, some don't agree that this 

is the first official pieing as Ben got his crust-full-of-fun smashed in his face instead of thrown.  The first fling of fun was acted out by Mabel Norman throwing a pie in Fatty Arbuckle's face in "A Noise from the Deep" in 1913. 

Possibly the first and best pie fight ever released for motion picture enjoyment was in the 1927 flick "The Battle of the Century" with my favorite guys, Laurel and Hardy, using 4,000 pies!  Enjoy that in the clip to the right.  

Now really, how could I talk about pie fights without mentioning the Lords of Laughter, The Three Stooges!  Moe was an expert flinger and and it was him that threw many of those on-target bulls-eyes.  He was so adept at this that he was called on for his pie throwing skills in non-Stooge films. The 1942 vid to the left is from "The Sweet Pie and Pie" and is probably one of the best examples of the Stooges Sweet Slings. Talk about LOL-ing! 

If you want to know how to prepare the perfect slapstick pie, check out Buster Keaton's recipe at this link...

http://www.oocities.org/~oldbrit/Keatonpies.html

Lastly, I will add a clip from the 1965 movie "The Great Race" and is regarded in the film industry as the largest pie fight in cinematic history at a cost of $200,000, 2357 (some sources state 4,000) pies and 5 days of shooting before all was in the can. 

So if you decide to live it up this monumental Pi Day with pie, take care out there.  Pie is best eaten, unless you're going for the laugh, which in a way, may be best after all :)