Playwright Anton Chekhov once observed that , in dramatics , if a gun appears in the first number , it ’ll inevitably go off in the second or third . likewise , comedy fans know that if a Proto-Indo European appear on cover in a moving picture or TV show , it ’ll inevitably be flip at — or smashed into — someone ’s face .
Along withslipping on a banana peel , the pie combat is one of the most famous comedy routines of all clip . It appear in sketch , TV show , and movies dating back more than one hundred years .
allot to Hopes&Fears , the first recognise Proto-Indo European fight appear in 1909’sMr . Flip , in which an objectionable general store coach gets his comeupance in the mannequin of a pie to the face . Though the film itself is forgettable , other filmmakers of the time were prompt by the pie throwing scene — a visual gag perfectly suited to the then - soundless spiritualist . Almost instantly , the Proto-Indo European battle became a staple fiber of soundless film . Just like the law Salmon P. Chase ( made famous by the Keystone Kops ) , an epic pie engagement was an promiscuous way to end a film .
By the time sound films came along in the 1930s , the Proto-Indo European fight was fully canonized — it was almost a necessary that comedy group like the Three Stooges or the Little Rascals make at least one pie - orient film . The Three Stooges , in fact , made two : In the Sweet Pie and Pie(1941 ) andPies and Guys(1958 ) .
Jumping forward to the ‘ 60s and ‘ 70 , film maker were still directing Proto-Indo European fight , though they tended to be a little more tongue - in - impertinence . After half a century , the pie had become a symbolic representation of a sure kind of silly , outdated , or unoriginal comedy . The pie combat in Mel Brooks’Blazing Saddles(1974 ) , for illustration , is at the same time fun slapstick and a caustic remark on Hollywood ’s reliance on the pie fight in clowning .
It ’s also interesting to note that Mel Brooks was n’t the first filmmaker to lampoon the pie fighting — Charlie Chaplin ’s filmBehind the Screen , which depart behind the scenes at a made - up moving-picture show studio , also made playfulness of the trope way back in 1916 . Chaplin ’s film introduces a radical of actors practicing their pie tossing with a sarcastic intertitle that reads , “ The comedy section — Rehearsing a new musical theme . ”
Today , the pie conflict seems to be wane in popularity — even making fun of Proto-Indo European throwing has get a number old — but it certainly has n’t disappeared . In last few decades , pie competitiveness have continue to seem periodically in movies and telly show , though they ’ve mostly been relegated to the world of baby ’s TV .
control out the first cinematic pie in the face in 1909’sMr . Flipbelow , and more definitive Proto-Indo European throwing examples on theHopes&Fears website .
[ h / t : Hopes&Fears ]
