Who Ate All the Pies?
|
|
- The chanting of humorous songs at football and rugby matches is an integral part of the game in the United Kingdom and one enthusistically entered into by fans. The objects of the songs can be the players, the referee and ground staff, the opposition, or other spectators..
"Who Ate All the Pies?" is one famous example of such a chant sung by fans in Britain; although not prescriptively so, it is usually sung to the tune of "Knees Up Mother Brown" and is aimed at supposedly overweight footballers, officials or opposing supporters.
| Contents |
The first chant
It is claimed to have first been sung at the huge goalie William Henry Foulkes (known as Fatty Foulkes) who was 6 ft 2 inches (188 cm) tall and apparently weighed about 12 stones (170 lbs, or 80 kg) when he joined Sheffield United in 1894, but increased to around 24 stones (330 lbs, or 150 kg) by 1902, legendarily remaining "agile as cat" despite his weight. The pioneering film makers Mitchell and Kenyon recorded him in one of the first movies of a football match when they filmed the League Division 1 game at Sheffield United's home ground of Bramall Lane, Sheffield, against Bury on Saturday 6 September 1902. Sheffield won 1-0; but on the Monday the Sheffield Daily Telegraph headlined their report "Cupholders Win A Poor Game". The game was featured in the BBC series "The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon".
Later chants
The chant has been associated with the striker Mick Quinn who played for six football clubs in the 1980s and 1990s and is commemorated in "The Mick Quinn award for the footballer most resembling a tub of lard (http://www.soccerwinners.com/bet050108.html)".
Alternative Theories
It is suggested that this chant originated as a crowd chant at English football games where the crowds can be very inventive with language: with most of it being scatalogical. The fans have long had a tradition of eating meat pies at half-time, with at many games many thousands of pies being consumed.
On occasion there aren't enough pies to go round and so any player looking a little overweight, e.g. Paul Gascoigne, aka 'Gazza' gets catcalled with the appropriate 'who ate all the pies?'.
The lyrics
The lyrics of the chant are:
- Who ate all the pies?
- Who ate all the pies?
- You fat bastard,
- You fat bastard,
- You ate all the pies!
Fbcard.jpg
Thumb
One popular variation replaces the second line with "The burgers and the fries."
Part of the song (the third line - "You fat bastard") has been adopted by Roy Chubby Brown as his anthem and is enthusiastically chanted by the audiences before his stage perfomances.
The vegetarian pie-less version
The Vegetarian Society have used a variant of this, "Who ate all the peas?", as a slogan. They displayed it on promotional hoardings in football grounds as part of their "Men and Meat Campaign", intended to combat the idea that vegetarianism is "something for women". This version lacks some of the cutting edge of the original though!
Sources
PiesQuinn.jpg
Thumb
Mick Quinn's autobiography: Who ate all the pies? The life and times of Mick Quinn (ISBN 0753508036).
External links
- "Hitting the Headlines (http://www.vegsoc.org/news/2000/21cv/headlines.html)" - an article from the Vegetarian Society's website, used as a reference
- "bfi Video-The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon (http://www.bfi.org.uk/videocat/more/mitchellandkenyon/)" - start of episode 2 shows Fatty Foulkes at Sheffield United
- All the Pies website (http://www.allthepies.org)