# Origin of the ridiculous phrase "Piehole"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 1, 2000, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723 "2000-02-01T19:07:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/1 "2000-02-01T19:07:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/2 "2000-02-01T19:44:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Crude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Crude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Crude)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/3 "2000-02-01T19:56:00Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![missdavis102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@missdavis102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missdavis102)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2000, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/4 "2000-02-01T20:05:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/5 "2000-02-02T01:14:00Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![Fyodor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/958977/32.png) [@Fyodor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fyodor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/6 "2000-02-02T04:58:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![TripleAnt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@TripleAnt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TripleAnt)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/7 "2000-02-02T05:06:00Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/8 "2000-02-02T05:27:00Z")
> [@](#): > > 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. 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_. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/9 "2000-02-02T06:27:00Z")
I thought the phrase “shut your piehole!” originated with LilethSC. I’m still wondering whether the spanker or the spankee goes without pants. * * * **R** anger **J** eff \*The Idol of American Youth \* [Riders In The Sky](http://www.ridersinthesky.com) ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-ridiculous-phrase-piehole/6723/10 "2000-02-02T16:21:00Z")
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.