Where did this word, and its lesser cousin cakehole, come from? Is it old? The first I ever heard it was in the Deniro film "A Boy’s Life" which was set in the 50s. It sounds both obscene and juvenile at the same time.
juvenile? obscene? ridiculous?
No way, it rocks. It’s one of my all time favorites!!
“SHUT YER PIEHOLE!!”
I have no idea of the etymology.
One of my faves too – and I find Piehole to be both funnier and easier to say than cakehole.
I am NOT speaking in my capacity as former student of linguistics, I’m just indulging in some folk etymology.
I’m sure you see that either cake or pie are supposed to be inserted via the mouth, thus the use of either term.
As to the why of it – the phrase suggests that one’s mouth is better used for eating pastries than for speaking. Also, it could be a further suggestion that the speaker has nothing important to say, as if they were an ignorant child to whom you’d give a slice of pie and send off into the corner to eat and be quiet.
But whatever you do, don’t get piehole mixed up with cornhole. Wars could start that way.
–Da Cap’n
“Playin’ solitaire 'til dawn
With a deck of fifty-one.”
I’m partial to cakehole myself. Mrs. Slocombe on Are You Being Served? said it frequently. I don’t like pie, much, anyway, even when not in connection with a hole.
I do agree with the Capn, as far as it goes about the etymology… it’s better to stuff your mouth with the pastry of choice than to speak.
See the video, American Pie. I think that might explain it.
“I have gathered a posie of other men’s flowers, and nothing but the
thread that binds them is mine own.”
I have read an awful lot of books in the course of a long life and the first time I ever saw “pie-hole” used, as in “shut your pie-hole”, was by Stephen King. I think it was in the short story that generated the movie “Stand By Me”. I wouldn’t be surprised if he coined the expression.
If you have ever heard of Jim Rome, he is a snydicated Sports Radio Host, he uses piehole a lot to describe mouth. That’s where I heard it first. I don’t remember it in American Pie though. Also if you remember the Simpsons when Lisa makes her own doll? When the new Malibu Stacy comes out and all the girls are fighting over them, she says “Hey horseface, get you piehooks off the doll.” So there is a variation of it.
“The idea of a walk-in closet sounds frightening. If I’m ever sittin’ at home and a closet walks in, I’m gettin’ outta there.” ~George Carlin
Of course, there’s been a word meathook for a long time. Also, I remember the term lunch hooks from Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm.
I thought the phrase “shut your piehole!” originated with LilethSC.
I’m still wondering whether the spanker or the spankee goes without pants.
Ranger Jeff
*The Idol of American Youth *
Riders In The Sky
Alz-
It was used earlier, in the Stephen King Film- “Christine”. I dont remember if he wrote that screenplay, lemme go look.
According to the credits published in the front of “Insomnia”, he did not. Still, I’d heard it long before I saw “Christine”. I love King, think he’s turned into some amazing writer. But, this one’s not his.
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.