, and pie "tosses" are also common charity fundraising events. Slapstick The political act of pieing has its origins in the "pie in the face" gag from slapstick comedy, first popularized on film by movie director Mack Sennett around the year 1914 in his Keystone Cops silent movies. Throwing pies as a comedy staple came into its own in the Laurel & Hardy classic short film, "The Battle of the Century" (1927) which reportedly required the use of four thousand pies. Pie-throwing became a convention… (More on Pieing)