I read that Ben Turpin was the first thrown-pie “victim” and he and Mabel Normand worked together under Mack Sennett. Did Mabel Normand throw that first pie at Ben Turpin?
“The first thrown pie caught on film has been attributed to comedienne Mabel Normand at Keystone. One day in 1913 Mabel Normand, attempting to get the famously cross-eyed Ben Turpin to laugh, picked up a lemon meringue pie which some workmen had brought to lunch with them and suddenly smashed it into Turpin’s face. Turpin laughed good-heartedly and wiped the pie from his face. When Keystone Studios founder Mack Sennett saw the scene in the projection room, pie throwing promptly joined pratfalls and mad chases as staples of Keystone comedies.”
Laura
Fantastic! I love it!
We just finished watching Turpin in a Rin Tin Tin serial — one of the very few (perhaps only) full-length movie *speaking* roles of his career. What a comedic genius!
(I read that he insured his eyes at $100,000 — to compensate him for the “harm” to his career if his strabismus should ever heal. A man with priorities!)
jflb96
Did the workmen get a replacement pie?
Comedic history is important and all, but I’d be rather cross if I went to have my lunch break and found that someone had stolen and destroyed the pie to which I’d been looking forward.
Steelbright
I agree, would be very sad to have lost that pie 😛 I guess we probably won’t know that history though…
That’s surprising. I would have thought the first pie thrown by one human being at another was either before or not long after the domestication of the cow.
Honestly though, if I were an evil billionaire (good billionaires only exist in fiction) I would 100% invent a service that lets you call in a Drone Pie Strike on someone.
I’m certain the technology exists. Your typical throwing pie is really just whipped cream on a disposable aluminum plate. A drone could probably carry hundreds of such plates, and keep the whipped cream in aerosolized form until ready to dispense. Combined with modern tracking algorithms and facial recognition software, I’m sure it’s possible.
Do i sense a common theme? Pies delivered via technology? QC developed pizza delivery from space some time ago.
If there is ever a crossover comic from Jeph and Willis, it should begin with a collaboration between Ruttech and Hanners’ dad up in the space station. I got a feeling it would be freekin’ hysterical.
Ymbrael
Fun Fact: Dave Willis has actually made no less than seven (7) guest strips for Questionable Content! So honestly a crossover comic, probably as promotional material or something, or just another guest strip, wouldn’t be that unlikely.
Yeah, I feel that would get you in trouble with school security. Especially if you used it to throw pies at other students. How knows, maybe Booster is allergic.
Hear me out though, cause at high enough speed that’s essentially just launching and aluminum disk at someone, not to take all fun out of the joke. I just find it humorous to think of the speed needed to launch a pie in a straight line from far enough away that Booster wouldn’t notice. Like Carla can’t just wheel in a pie catapult, cause even reading Booster would see that. It has to be a machine with some serious power.
Given that it’s a comic and Booster is completely unharmed, you seem very irrational
Obviously Carla considered the engineering challenges with launching a pie *harmlessly* over a distance and overcame them
UNSAFELY launching a pie is not something that would challenge an engineering student ?
Bruno
Yeah, when have tech scions ever cut corners on safety?
Taffy
Usually when they’re making canned soup.
Sirksome
I kind of just wanted to have fun maybe talking about what the machine could be but I guess I’ve worded this wrong or miscommunicated my intentions. I would appreciate not being called irrational though with upmost sincerity. I wasn’t trying to upset anyone. I’ll just appreciate the joke more next time, I guess. Kind of wish I could delete my comments now.
Bruno
Carla cut Booster in half with a well-aimed destructo disc.
Dante
I’m up for talking about the machine! And the kind of pie that it could’ve launched. I’d thought catapult at first too but that’s indeed a really straight line? As for the pie – I feel like a dense yet light enough synthetic whipped “cream” pie (with one of those disposable aluminium pans) would suffice to maximum SPLAT and minimal damage.
Laura
Ooh, ooh, better yet… how about a BOOMERANG pie?! Then she could toss it in a curve!
Hey, has anyone here besides me ever participated in a pie-toss relay race? The most delicious and messiest of all sports… :-9
I love pie shop talk!
morleuca
What if the pie built itself mid-flight. Or like unpacked (?)somehow?
Sirksome
See now I thought it could be some kind of mounted pie bazooka, a pie-zooka if you will. Thing is it needs to be quiet or small enough to not alert Booster or shoot from far enough away they can’t see it. Maybe just a simple pie sling shot with some bungie cord and a remote activated release switch?
Yumi
I thought your comments were fine and your intent was evident. Sometimes people get aggressive at you on the internet for no good reason. I also have questions about this machine.
BBCC
It’s because someone on Patreon was arguing that this was a serious assault and so the hackles are already up for some of the folks on patreon. It’s not your fault, Sirksome. Blame that and the residual lack of trust from when a bunch of TERFs were arguing Carla violently assaulted Mary with a pie way back when.
Needfuldoer
I’m sure the machine spin-stabilizes the pie so it flies straighter, even with its largest surface facing into the wind.
Laura
Oh, yeah! And don’t get Marty McFly started on the dangers of throwing pie tins!
Well, then, what’s the mass of a disposable aluminum pie plate? Do we really think that’s the main problem? It’s padded with a pie. The pie itself probably masses considerably more, and thus is carrying most of the energy. I’d be more worried about injury to the neck than to the face.
Now, indoor distances don’t vary much, and I wouldn’t think that they would be a large factor in the necessary speed. But look at that flat trajectory — that’s going to take some speed.
So, here’s your challenge, Carla: a looooong multi-jointed arm that can extend at the speed of a striking cobra (for surprise) yet pull its punch at the end to deliver humiliation without injury. Bonus points if it can smoosh the pie around after contact, for extra giggles.
In comics, no. Not unless the story decides to subvert the comedic framework intentionally.
One of my favorite dumb little facts is that West Point, yes, that West Point, the US Military University, did a paper studying the dangers of T-Shirt Cannons being fired at close range. Turns out that, at point-blank range, they have about half the kinetic force of a 9mm bullet. Kinda useful knowledge that those that operate those devices should know, to be honest.
But that kinetic force is spread out over a much wider area.
Wraithy2773
Oh, sure. But it can still do a lot of damage at close range if it strikes someone in the face. Something that has happened, when improperly trained employees have a malfunctioning air cannon and don’t handle it properly.
End of the day, an air cannon is still somewhat resembling a cannon, should not be pointed at faces.
to say nothing of the air resistance of a pie and other matters of aerodynamics
now i’m wondering if the pie spins to aid in stability in flight
i’m talking gyroscopic pie wind tunnel testing here
and also how stiff the creme has to be to stay in the pan
and does rutten industries have any eggs in the home-ec-industrial complex basket
there are so many questions, a surprising number of them culinary
Dante
I worked as a cook for a long time, and the answer you seek -if we’re talking an organic creme- lies in Swiss meringue.
It’d stay exactly where you put it, have enough weight/density/surface tension to spin and hold shape in a wide pan while doing it, and yet it’s truly really, really light and soft.
(You know your meringue is ready if you can flip the bowl and it doesn’t even move.)
AlaninDC
A round of applause for Cartoon Physics — the same universal force that allows coyotes to run off cliffs and not fall until they look down; and ducks to run down twelve flights of stairs to arrive on the sidewalk before the falling piano does.
Okay, but those are safe actually. I’ve tested it on myself.
Liara
People have died from getting shot at with blanks
Taffy
Nobody told me that! What the fuck? Are you actually serious right now? No sarcasm or jokes, like that’s actually dangerous? I did that right at my fucking head, from like a few inches away. What??? You’re telling me, in direct terms, I could have died from that??
clif
The odds were in your favor, but I seriously do not recommend it.
Yeah, the shockwave is still very powerful. There’s a few stories about actors who weren’t aware of the danger putting blank-loaded guns to their heads and pulling the trigger as a joke, with tragic consequences.
Also anything that might be in the barrel will get propelled with the force of a normal bullet. Brandon Lee died when a prop gun had a bullet retained in the barrel from a defective dummy round.
They can be used very safely but there are absolutely ways to get yourself killed with them, not something to fuck around with.
Taffy
Well, fuck. Didn’t realise how close I was cutting it. That must disappoint some of the folks here, knowing I lucked out.
Thag Simmons
I would hope that even if they find someone obnoxious nobody here would actually want anyone to get seriously injured and potentially dead over webcomic opinions
The Oracle
Yeah, cuz anyone here gives a fuck if you live or die, especially to the point they’d be glad if you successfully committed suicide. ?
Yumi
I actually very much do give a fuck if Taffy lives or dies. I am very much on the side of them living.
Bruno
I sawed Taffy in half with a lemon cream destructo disc.
Ok, now i kinda wanna know the story, if it’s shareable. Were you making a movie? Playing pretend-russian roulette? Was it a prank? Was it sexual roleplay? Or were you just bored?
Taffy
Just dickin’ around, really. Was over at a friend’s house, there was (I thought) a realistic fake gun nearby, and I had terrible impulse control issues back then, so I just grabbed it and BAM. We all thought it was just really funny, and I didn’t really get why his dad was so upset. I was really bad at understanding other people’s emotions and the reasons for their reactions to things I did, back then. Now, I’ve got no clue why the fuck the guy had an actual gun with blanks in it just sitting on the coffee table, but I think he sold pot (it was 100% illegal back then), so I guess he used it to scare off rude visitors and forgot it was sitting there?
Or possibly I hallucinated the entire thing, come to think of it. I have a substance abuse problem and have insanely vivid nightmares almost nightly, so there’s a non-zero chance it didn’t actually happen and parts of it got mixed with a real memory. If it’s not a real memory, my brain sure does a good job filling in the smells and sounds, and my ear’s sure good at replicating hearing loss.
clif
I’m very glad you survived Bruno’s destructo disc. The comment section would be less interesting without you.
399 thoughts on “Harsh”
Doctor_Who
Carla’s patron saints: Tony Stark and Mabel Normand.
(Normand threw the first ever pie, and according to producer Mack Sennett she invented the gag.)
Laura
I read that Ben Turpin was the first thrown-pie “victim” and he and Mabel Normand worked together under Mack Sennett. Did Mabel Normand throw that first pie at Ben Turpin?
AndysDrawings
Pie Throwing In Comedy: A Brief History suggests yes!
“The first thrown pie caught on film has been attributed to comedienne Mabel Normand at Keystone. One day in 1913 Mabel Normand, attempting to get the famously cross-eyed Ben Turpin to laugh, picked up a lemon meringue pie which some workmen had brought to lunch with them and suddenly smashed it into Turpin’s face. Turpin laughed good-heartedly and wiped the pie from his face. When Keystone Studios founder Mack Sennett saw the scene in the projection room, pie throwing promptly joined pratfalls and mad chases as staples of Keystone comedies.”
Laura
Fantastic! I love it!
We just finished watching Turpin in a Rin Tin Tin serial — one of the very few (perhaps only) full-length movie *speaking* roles of his career. What a comedic genius!
(I read that he insured his eyes at $100,000 — to compensate him for the “harm” to his career if his strabismus should ever heal. A man with priorities!)
jflb96
Did the workmen get a replacement pie?
Comedic history is important and all, but I’d be rather cross if I went to have my lunch break and found that someone had stolen and destroyed the pie to which I’d been looking forward.
Steelbright
I agree, would be very sad to have lost that pie 😛 I guess we probably won’t know that history though…
Reltzik
That’s surprising. I would have thought the first pie thrown by one human being at another was either before or not long after the domestication of the cow.
clif
I’m not sure that throwing cows counts.
Azhrei Vep
But cow pies might!
Van Jealous
Utterly, they do..
JasonAW3
Shouldn’t that be udder-ly?
Laura
I think the precision here is that this was the first FILMED intentional comedic pie throwing, not the first time anyone has ever thrown a pie.
quark
carla i love u
Thag Simmons
she’s the best
clif
Dina is objectively the best.
Carla is the second best.
ktbear
How dare you??!!
Ana Chronistic
tell me it’s borne by a red SUV or hybrid car chassis
Doctor_Who
These days, Carla delivers pies via drone.
Honestly though, if I were an evil billionaire (good billionaires only exist in fiction) I would 100% invent a service that lets you call in a Drone Pie Strike on someone.
I’m certain the technology exists. Your typical throwing pie is really just whipped cream on a disposable aluminum plate. A drone could probably carry hundreds of such plates, and keep the whipped cream in aerosolized form until ready to dispense. Combined with modern tracking algorithms and facial recognition software, I’m sure it’s possible.
Dante
What about a drone whose structure itself can rearrange into a catapult?
RoyanRannedos
_Transformer noises_
AlaninDC
Do i sense a common theme? Pies delivered via technology? QC developed pizza delivery from space some time ago.
If there is ever a crossover comic from Jeph and Willis, it should begin with a collaboration between Ruttech and Hanners’ dad up in the space station. I got a feeling it would be freekin’ hysterical.
Ymbrael
Fun Fact: Dave Willis has actually made no less than seven (7) guest strips for Questionable Content! So honestly a crossover comic, probably as promotional material or something, or just another guest strip, wouldn’t be that unlikely.
https://questionablecontent.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_guest_strips
Sirksome
I feel like a pie launching machine that can send a pie that far would be dangerous.
True Survivor
Yeah, I feel that would get you in trouble with school security. Especially if you used it to throw pies at other students. How knows, maybe Booster is allergic.
True Survivor
I really need to be better at proof-reading. My comment is nearly more error than grammar. Sorry.
Laura
All good! We understood!
Fart Captor
It’s a goddamn pie, and Carla knows what she’s doing
Sirksome
Hear me out though, cause at high enough speed that’s essentially just launching and aluminum disk at someone, not to take all fun out of the joke. I just find it humorous to think of the speed needed to launch a pie in a straight line from far enough away that Booster wouldn’t notice. Like Carla can’t just wheel in a pie catapult, cause even reading Booster would see that. It has to be a machine with some serious power.
Bruno
throws a pie at you
Laura
Mmm… banana cream and peanut butter! Delish! ;-9
Opus the Poet
That’s an “Elvis” at the local pie baker. Last I checked they were about $10.
Fart Captor
Given that it’s a comic and Booster is completely unharmed, you seem very irrational
Obviously Carla considered the engineering challenges with launching a pie *harmlessly* over a distance and overcame them
UNSAFELY launching a pie is not something that would challenge an engineering student ?
Bruno
Yeah, when have tech scions ever cut corners on safety?
Taffy
Usually when they’re making canned soup.
Sirksome
I kind of just wanted to have fun maybe talking about what the machine could be but I guess I’ve worded this wrong or miscommunicated my intentions. I would appreciate not being called irrational though with upmost sincerity. I wasn’t trying to upset anyone. I’ll just appreciate the joke more next time, I guess. Kind of wish I could delete my comments now.
Bruno
Carla cut Booster in half with a well-aimed destructo disc.
Dante
I’m up for talking about the machine! And the kind of pie that it could’ve launched. I’d thought catapult at first too but that’s indeed a really straight line? As for the pie – I feel like a dense yet light enough synthetic whipped “cream” pie (with one of those disposable aluminium pans) would suffice to maximum SPLAT and minimal damage.
Laura
Ooh, ooh, better yet… how about a BOOMERANG pie?! Then she could toss it in a curve!
Hey, has anyone here besides me ever participated in a pie-toss relay race? The most delicious and messiest of all sports… :-9
I love pie shop talk!
morleuca
What if the pie built itself mid-flight. Or like unpacked (?)somehow?
Sirksome
See now I thought it could be some kind of mounted pie bazooka, a pie-zooka if you will. Thing is it needs to be quiet or small enough to not alert Booster or shoot from far enough away they can’t see it. Maybe just a simple pie sling shot with some bungie cord and a remote activated release switch?
Yumi
I thought your comments were fine and your intent was evident. Sometimes people get aggressive at you on the internet for no good reason. I also have questions about this machine.
BBCC
It’s because someone on Patreon was arguing that this was a serious assault and so the hackles are already up for some of the folks on patreon. It’s not your fault, Sirksome. Blame that and the residual lack of trust from when a bunch of TERFs were arguing Carla violently assaulted Mary with a pie way back when.
Needfuldoer
I’m sure the machine spin-stabilizes the pie so it flies straighter, even with its largest surface facing into the wind.
Laura
Oh, yeah! And don’t get Marty McFly started on the dangers of throwing pie tins!
https://youtu.be/sWfmN6F5SjE?si=cJFTEpm9STg5Z3AU
Roborat
Well, she is stupidly rich, maybe she has a portal gun.
tunasammich
You guys…come on
Sirksome
I’m not trying to start some weird pie assault discourse here. I just thought the potential mechanics of the machine were worth thinking about.
Laura
Oh, definitely! I am all for an exploration of the engineering challenge!
:’D
One can never be too careful with pies. Just ask Dr. Andreas Bichlbauer, J.D., about the horribly stupid stunt (which has led to his untimely death).
https://theyesmen.org/project/salzburg/horriblystupidstunt
(Don’t worry, he didn’t really die!)
Mark
Well, then, what’s the mass of a disposable aluminum pie plate? Do we really think that’s the main problem? It’s padded with a pie. The pie itself probably masses considerably more, and thus is carrying most of the energy. I’d be more worried about injury to the neck than to the face.
Now, indoor distances don’t vary much, and I wouldn’t think that they would be a large factor in the necessary speed. But look at that flat trajectory — that’s going to take some speed.
So, here’s your challenge, Carla: a looooong multi-jointed arm that can extend at the speed of a striking cobra (for surprise) yet pull its punch at the end to deliver humiliation without injury. Bonus points if it can smoosh the pie around after contact, for extra giggles.
True Survivor
The world shall be emptied of whimsy!!! Fun and mirth shall fade from memory!!! The comment boards shall know me and despair!!!
Sorry.
Laura
Look upon ye, mighty, and despair!
Better call him Ozy-PAN-dias, from all them pie pans lying around!
Wraithy2773
In reality, yes.
In comics, no. Not unless the story decides to subvert the comedic framework intentionally.
One of my favorite dumb little facts is that West Point, yes, that West Point, the US Military University, did a paper studying the dangers of T-Shirt Cannons being fired at close range. Turns out that, at point-blank range, they have about half the kinetic force of a 9mm bullet. Kinda useful knowledge that those that operate those devices should know, to be honest.
If you’re weirdly curious, you can read the study here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307577201_Risk_Assessment_of_Air_Cannons_at_Sporting_Events
But this is fiction, so we should just treat this as a pie-in-the-face gag. Don’t need to delve more into it than that.
Bruno
But that kinetic force is spread out over a much wider area.
Wraithy2773
Oh, sure. But it can still do a lot of damage at close range if it strikes someone in the face. Something that has happened, when improperly trained employees have a malfunctioning air cannon and don’t handle it properly.
End of the day, an air cannon is still somewhat resembling a cannon, should not be pointed at faces.
Laura
Poor Maude Flanders, we hardly knew ye…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_Again,_Natura-Diddily
Dara
to say nothing of the air resistance of a pie and other matters of aerodynamics
now i’m wondering if the pie spins to aid in stability in flight
i’m talking gyroscopic pie wind tunnel testing here
and also how stiff the creme has to be to stay in the pan
and does rutten industries have any eggs in the home-ec-industrial complex basket
there are so many questions, a surprising number of them culinary
Dante
I worked as a cook for a long time, and the answer you seek -if we’re talking an organic creme- lies in Swiss meringue.
It’d stay exactly where you put it, have enough weight/density/surface tension to spin and hold shape in a wide pan while doing it, and yet it’s truly really, really light and soft.
(You know your meringue is ready if you can flip the bowl and it doesn’t even move.)
AlaninDC
A round of applause for Cartoon Physics — the same universal force that allows coyotes to run off cliffs and not fall until they look down; and ducks to run down twelve flights of stairs to arrive on the sidewalk before the falling piano does.
Risky
ReplacementMike getting killed due to trolling a troll until the troll trolled back seems pretty poetic.
Shrub
A bit like blank rounds then
Taffy
Okay, but those are safe actually. I’ve tested it on myself.
Liara
People have died from getting shot at with blanks
Taffy
Nobody told me that! What the fuck? Are you actually serious right now? No sarcasm or jokes, like that’s actually dangerous? I did that right at my fucking head, from like a few inches away. What??? You’re telling me, in direct terms, I could have died from that??
clif
The odds were in your favor, but I seriously do not recommend it.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19901805/
Thag Simmons
Yeah, the shockwave is still very powerful. There’s a few stories about actors who weren’t aware of the danger putting blank-loaded guns to their heads and pulling the trigger as a joke, with tragic consequences.
Also anything that might be in the barrel will get propelled with the force of a normal bullet. Brandon Lee died when a prop gun had a bullet retained in the barrel from a defective dummy round.
They can be used very safely but there are absolutely ways to get yourself killed with them, not something to fuck around with.
Taffy
Well, fuck. Didn’t realise how close I was cutting it. That must disappoint some of the folks here, knowing I lucked out.
Thag Simmons
I would hope that even if they find someone obnoxious nobody here would actually want anyone to get seriously injured and potentially dead over webcomic opinions
The Oracle
Yeah, cuz anyone here gives a fuck if you live or die, especially to the point they’d be glad if you successfully committed suicide. ?
Yumi
I actually very much do give a fuck if Taffy lives or dies. I am very much on the side of them living.
Bruno
I sawed Taffy in half with a lemon cream destructo disc.
milu
Ok, now i kinda wanna know the story, if it’s shareable. Were you making a movie? Playing pretend-russian roulette? Was it a prank? Was it sexual roleplay? Or were you just bored?
Taffy
Just dickin’ around, really. Was over at a friend’s house, there was (I thought) a realistic fake gun nearby, and I had terrible impulse control issues back then, so I just grabbed it and BAM. We all thought it was just really funny, and I didn’t really get why his dad was so upset. I was really bad at understanding other people’s emotions and the reasons for their reactions to things I did, back then. Now, I’ve got no clue why the fuck the guy had an actual gun with blanks in it just sitting on the coffee table, but I think he sold pot (it was 100% illegal back then), so I guess he used it to scare off rude visitors and forgot it was sitting there?
Or possibly I hallucinated the entire thing, come to think of it. I have a substance abuse problem and have insanely vivid nightmares almost nightly, so there’s a non-zero chance it didn’t actually happen and parts of it got mixed with a real memory. If it’s not a real memory, my brain sure does a good job filling in the smells and sounds, and my ear’s sure good at replicating hearing loss.
clif
I’m very glad you survived Bruno’s destructo disc. The comment section would be less interesting without you.