custard-pie

American  

[kuhs-terd-pahy] / ˈkʌs tərdˈpaɪ /

adjective

1. characteristic of a type of slapstick comedy in which a performer throws a pie in another's face: popular especially in the era of vaudeville and early silent films.

---

custard pie British  

noun

1. 1. a flat, open pie filled with real or artificial custard, as thrown in slapstick comedy

   2. ( as modifier )

      custard-pie humour

---

Etymology

Origin of custard-pie

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Bing sings a few songs; Hope clowns and rolls his eyes at Dotty; the late Robert Benchley breaks in from time to time to put a gloss on the frozen custard-pie humor.

From Time Magazine Archive

Boisterous, rowdy, full of custard-pie humor, the program last week was hard on the heels of top-rating quiz show Information Please.

From Time Magazine Archive

On the other hand, he has also lost the Elizabethan faculty for fairly plastering his "opponent" with a custard-pie onslaught of laborious, invidious obscenities.

From Time Magazine Archive

They watched beadily as the slim, smiling youth received the first, custard-pie impact of an American welcome.

From Time Magazine Archive

Lonnegan looked down into the custard-pie face of the speaker, but made no reply.

From A Gentleman's Gentleman 1909 by Smith, Francis Hopkinson