Basic Trope: Someone throws a pie in someone else's face.
- Straight: Bob throws a pie in Alice's face.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob catapults a pie the size of a car at Alice, covering her with its innards.
- Bob dramatically throws several hundred pies at Alice.
- An entire episode is dedicated to Alice and Bob having an escalating pie fight that half the town ends up participating in. Pies are fired from cannons and dropped from the air, and chaos reigns. The streets are full of splattered pie.
- Downplayed:
- Bob throws a tiny pie that gets stuck on Alice's nose.
- A pie soars through the air and hits a distant extra while Alice and Bob have a conversation. Nobody notices, and the shot where the pie and extra are seen lasts for only a couple of seconds.
- Bob is eating a pie when a piece flies off and hits Alice.
- Justified:
- Alice has been depressed, and Bob wants to make Alice feel better.
- Alice just wandered into a Food Fight.
- The pie was baked with ingredients that are good not just for the stomach but for the skin as well; why not exploit the ingredients to their fullest?
- Alice is really annoying Bob, and he decides that a pie to the face will shut her up.
- Inverted:
- Alice throws herself into a pie.
- Alternatively, a pie throws Bob into another pie.
- Alice and Bob are standing near the table with pie on it, and Bob dunks Alice's head in the pie.
- Subverted:
- Bob gears up to throw a pie at Alice, but stops, reasoning that it isn't worth it.
- Bob sees Alice and a pie, and reaches over to it... only to grab a slice of pie instead.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob doesn't throw a pie at Alice, but instead at Charlie.
- Bob takes that slice and shoves it in Alice's face.
- Parodied:
- Bob throws a pie at Alice, but manages to hit himself instead.
- Bob throws a pie at Alice and it knocks her out.
- In this setting, pies are sold in weapon stores rather than in food courts.
- The countries of Tropestan and Wikitopia fight a full-scale war with pies. Soldiers who get hit lie on the ground and cry out as if they're actually dying, with everyone else wailing over the senseless waste of both human life and delicious pies.
- Bob hits Alice with a piece of paper that has the first thousand digits of pi written on it.
- Zig Zagged: Sometimes the characters throw pie. Other times, they refuse to and throw quiche instead.
- Averted:
- Bob sees a pie nearby and ignores it.
- No pies appear in the work.
- Enforced: Executives decide that the writers need to lighten the mood of a scene, and so a character is hit with a pie.
- Lampshaded: "Really? You're dabbling in old slapstick humor now?"
- Invoked:
- Bob dares Charlie to throw a pie at Alice and he does it.
- Alice points at a nearby pie and asks Bob to give it to her...so, of course, he throws it at her.
- Exploited: Alice grabs Bob's pie-throwing hand and proceeds to slap him in the face with it.
- Defied: Bob is about to throw a pie at Alice, until Alice pulls out a knife and threatens him.
- Discussed: "Why would you throw that pie? It's a waste!"
- Conversed: "Just imagine having to clean that up... Good thing that doesn't happen too often in reality, right?"
- Implied: Bob is seen looking at a pie. The next scene, Alice is covered in pie.
- Played For Laughs: Just play it as straight as you can. Laughs are the whole purpose.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob pulls a still-cooling pie out and throws it at Alice. However, it is scalding hot and gives Alice third-degree burns, putting her in the hospital and damaging their relationship.
- Alice is wearing a very nice and expensive dress when Bob hits her with a pie, ruining the dress and pissing her off.
- Alice is performing on stage when Bob hits her with a pie, ruining her performance. After the distraught Alice runs off the stage crying, everyone in the theater goes after Bob for being a jerk.
- Bob hits Queen Alice with a pie and is thus charged with Lèse-majesté.
- Bob hits Alice with a pecan pie — and it turns out that Alice is allergic to pecans and she suffers a serious reaction.
- Bob hits Alice with a pie, and she sues him for assault.
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