Soupy Sales: Come Pie with Me
OCTOBER 23, 2009 TAGS:
Soupy Sales’ comedy never aimed to be high art, and his puppet antics, elastic expressions and gangly body produced a comedy that appealed to a broad base of fans. Generations of watchers loved Soupy for his wit, his energy and his persistence. His most enduring cultural contribution, however, crystallized comedy into a single act. He canonized a routine as old as Vaudeville and the early days of Barnum’s circus: the pie in the face.
It was an inevitable moment during the thousands of live broadcasts of "The Soup Sales Show" or even on the "Laugh In." Someone, either Soupy himself, or a guest (like proto-metal musician Alice Cooper), would get a cream pie hurled square in the mug.
The act demeans the recipient, folly befalls and comedy ensues. Is it the surprise? Is it the reaction? A face piled thick with cream, two deep holes for eyes.
It is comedic violence at its best, a short burst, a long release. So no wonder the act has also served as an adjunct political move, with heavy inspiration from Soupy Sales and his years of TV program.
To honor Soupy, who died on Thursday, October 22nd at the age of 83, and his pie antics, here’s a short history of the pie in the face as a political form of protest. This isn’t nonviolent resistance or any kind of morally superior method for enacting political change. The pie in the face is a slap, a fierce rebuke, with the added assistance of a bucket cool whip.
Anita Bryant. The anti-gay activist gets a pie in the face at a press conference in 1977, then prays with a face full of banana cream for her attacker “to be delivered from his deviant lifestyle.”
Thomas Friedman of The World is Flat fame gets two pies hurled at him just as he takes the lecturn at Brown University. His assailants miss, twice. Looks like the gadfly of globalization is quicker than anyone thought.
Ann Coulter has speedy reflexes as well, while discussing liberals, terrorism and Muslims two pies miss her.
And here’s the master: Soupy Sales Pie, "Come Pie with Me," pretty decent biographical sketch set to the tune of "Come Fly with Me."
It was an inevitable moment during the thousands of live broadcasts of "The Soup Sales Show" or even on the "Laugh In." Someone, either Soupy himself, or a guest (like proto-metal musician Alice Cooper), would get a cream pie hurled square in the mug.The act demeans the recipient, folly befalls and comedy ensues. Is it the surprise? Is it the reaction? A face piled thick with cream, two deep holes for eyes.
It is comedic violence at its best, a short burst, a long release. So no wonder the act has also served as an adjunct political move, with heavy inspiration from Soupy Sales and his years of TV program.
To honor Soupy, who died on Thursday, October 22nd at the age of 83, and his pie antics, here’s a short history of the pie in the face as a political form of protest. This isn’t nonviolent resistance or any kind of morally superior method for enacting political change. The pie in the face is a slap, a fierce rebuke, with the added assistance of a bucket cool whip.
Anita Bryant. The anti-gay activist gets a pie in the face at a press conference in 1977, then prays with a face full of banana cream for her attacker “to be delivered from his deviant lifestyle.”
Thomas Friedman of The World is Flat fame gets two pies hurled at him just as he takes the lecturn at Brown University. His assailants miss, twice. Looks like the gadfly of globalization is quicker than anyone thought.
Ann Coulter has speedy reflexes as well, while discussing liberals, terrorism and Muslims two pies miss her.
And here’s the master: Soupy Sales Pie, "Come Pie with Me," pretty decent biographical sketch set to the tune of "Come Fly with Me."
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