Noël Godin (born 13 September 1945) is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

writer,

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

, actor and notorious pie thrower or ''entarteur''. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

CEO

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, pelting the

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

with a pie. After bombarding Gates, Godin allegedly said, "My work is done here."

Philosophy

Godin insists he is non-violent and is careful to use only what he calls a "tarte classique", filled with whipped cream and perhaps a little chocolate in soft sponge cake. He says his humor can be traced back through

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian. As his contributions to comedy and charity made him a global figure in popular culture, pop culture ...

Wile E. Coyote Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical cartoon short '' Fast and Furry-ous''. In each episode, ...

, the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

and

yippies The Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were commonly called Yippies, was an American youth-oriented radical and countercultural revolutionary offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the late 1960s. It was founded on D ...

Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...

.Noël Godin, ''Entartons, entartons les pompeux cornichons!'', Flammarion, 2005, pp. 27, 241 Godin is inspired (for instance in his ''Anthologie de la subversion carabinée'' (1989)) by the works of the

Utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island socie ...

philosophers A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Tommaso Campanella Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 an ...

''Civitas Solis''
and

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical ...

( ''La Phalange'', ''Le Phalanstère''). His ideal society is one where there is no struggle for power or money and where everybody can live in a state of perfect happiness. He is also an admirer of the anarchist

Ravachol François Claudius Koenigstein, also known as Ravachol, (14 October 1859 – 11 July 1892) was a French anarchist. He was born on 14 October 1859, at Saint-Chamond, Loire and died by being guillotined on 11 July 1892, at Montbrison, Loire, Montb ...

without approving his violence, sentiment which inspired him to his pie-attacks. Godin has a particularly colourful way of expressing himself, using terms like "tempêtes patissières" (''pastry storm'') to describe his pieing.Noël Godin, ''Armons-nous les uns les autres!'', Flammarion, 2003

Selected victims

The list of public figures Godin and his accomplices have targeted with pies includes: *

Marguerite Duras Marguerite Germaine Marie Donnadieu (, 4 April 1914 – 3 March 1996), known as Marguerite Duras (), was a French novelist, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and experimental filmmaker. Her script for the film '' Hiroshima mon amour'' (1959) e ...

(1969) *

Maurice Béjart Maurice Béjart (; 1 January 1927 – 22 November 2007) was a French-born dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet Lausanne in Switzerland. He developed a popular expressionistic form of modern ballet, talking vast th ...

(1969) *

Marco Ferreri Marco Ferreri (11 May 1928 – 9 May 1997) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and actor, who began his career in the 1950s directing three films in Spain, followed by 24 Italian films before his death in 1997. He is considered one o ...

(1976) *

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...

(1985) *

Bernard-Henri Lévy Bernard-Henri Lévy (; ; born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. His opinions, political activ ...

(1985, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2015) *

Jean Delannoy Jean Delannoy (12 January 1908 – 18 June 2008) was a French actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director. Biography Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family was from Haute-Normandie in the north of France. He was a P ...

(1988) *

Vladimir Volkoff Vladimir Volkoff (7 November 1932 – 14 September 2005) was a French writer of Russian extraction. He produced both literary works for adults and spy novels for young readers under the pseudonym Lieutenant X. His works are characterised by theme ...

(1993) *

Patrick Bruel Patrick Benguigui (; born 14 May 1959), better known by his stage name Patrick Bruel (), is a French singer-songwriter, actor and professional poker player. Biography Early life Patrick is the son of Pierre Benguigui and Augusta Kammoun, d ...

(1993) *

Jean-Pierre Elkabbach Jean-Pierre Elkabbach (born 29 September 1937) is a French journalist. Biography Elkabbach was born to an Algerian Jewish family in Oran in 1937, then the prefecture of the ''département d'Oran'' in French Algeria. He began his journalistic ...

(1994) *

Hélène Rollès Hélène Rollès (; at times just the mononym Hélène; born 20 December 1966) is a French actress and singer, primarily known for her major role in the TV sitcom '' Helen and the boys'' (''Hélène et les Garçons''), alongside Sébastien Roch. ...

(1995) *

Philippe Douste-Blazy Philippe Douste-Blazy (; born 1 January 1953) is a French United Nations official and former centre-right politician. Over the course of his career, he served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Adviser on Innovative Financi ...

(1995) *

Pascal Sevran Pascal Sevran (16 October 1945 – 9 May 2008) was a French TV presenter and author. Biography Son of a communist taxi driver, and a Spanish seamstress, Pascal Sevran was born on 16 October 1945 in Paris. His real name was Jean-Claude Jouhaud. He ...

(1995) *

Patrick Poivre d'Arvor Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (PPDA; né Patrick Jean Marcel Poivre, ; born 20 September 1947) is a French TV journalist and writer. He is a household name in France, and nicknamed "PPDA". With over 30 years and in excess of 4,500 editions of televis ...

(1996) *

Daniel Toscan du Plantier Daniel Toscan du Plantier (7 April 1941 – 11 February 2003) was a French film producer. Educated at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques he became advertising manager for the ''France Soir'' daily newspaper in 1966 and between 1975 and 1985 was d ...

(1996) * Priests at

Nantes Cathedral Nantes Cathedral, or the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes (french: Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes), is a Roman Catholic Gothic cathedral located in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France. Construction began in 1434, on t ...

(1996) *

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

(1997) *

(1998) *

Bernard Landry Bernard Landry (; March 9, 1937 – November 6, 2018) was a Canadian politician who served as the 28th premier of Quebec from 2001 to 2003. A member of the Parti Québécois (PQ), he led the party from 2001 to 2005, also serving as the leader o ...

(2000) * Benjamin Castaldi (2001) * Jean-Pierre Chevènement (2002) *

Karel Dillen Karel Cornelia Constantijn Dillen (16 October 1925 – 27 April 2007) was a far-right Belgian politician and Flemish nationalist. Life According to Paul Beliën, editor of the Brussels Journal, "Dillen came from a non-political background. ...

and

Jean-Claude Martinez Jean-Claude Martinez (born 30 July 1945, in Sète, Hérault) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. He was a member and a vice-president of the Front National, and was among the '' Non-Inscri ...

(2002) *

Jean Charest John James "Jean" Charest (; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012 and the fifth deputy prime minister of Canada in 1993. Charest was elected to the House o ...

(2003) *

Doc Gynéco Bruno Beausir (; born May 10, 1974), known by his stage name Doc Gynéco (), is a French hip hop musician. His music is typically characterized as a ragga/rap style, that has found its fan base in France. Early life, family and education Born i ...

(2007)

Books

* ''Anthologie de la subversion carabinée, L'âge d'homme'', 1989, (philosophical study of political freedom), réédition revue et augmentée, 2008 * ''Zig zig boum boum'', Le Veilleur, Toulouse, 1994 * ''Crème et châtiment : mémoire d'un entarteur'', Albin Michel, 1995 * ''Godin par Godin'', Yellow Now, 2001, * ''Armons-nous les uns les autres!'' (novel), Flammarion, 2003, * ''Entartons, entartons les pompeux cornichons!'', Flammarion, 2005, (The story of all his pieings).

References

External links

Piers' websites

Official Site of the "Internationale Pâtissière" (IP)Official Site of the Montreal "entartistes"

Articles

Movies with Noël Godin

Site of the Movies with Noel Godin
*'' Les vacances de Noël (2005)'' *'' La vie politique des Belges'' (2002) *''

Camping Cosmos ''Camping Cosmos'' is a 1996 Belgian satirical comedy film and a sequel to '' La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-1978'', directed by the same director: Jan Bucquoy. It stars Claude Semal, Lolo Ferrari (Miss Vandeputte), Noël Godin ( Pierre Mertens) ...

'' (1998) *'' La vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-78'' (1994) {{DEFAULTSORT:Godin, Noel 1945 births Living people Belgian male actors Belgian non-fiction writers Belgian male writers Belgian film directors Belgian anarchists Bill Gates Walloon people Writers from Liège Film people from Liège Male non-fiction writers