Noël Godin

1945-09-13 · Liège, Belgium

Noël Godin (13 September 1945 - 23 august 2026) was a Belgian writer, critic, actor and notorious pie thrower or entarteur. Godin gained global attention in 1998 when his group ambushed Microsoft CEO Bill Gates in Brussels, pelting the software magnate with a pie. After bombarding Gates, Godin allegedly said, "My work is done here." Godin insisted he was non-violent and is careful to use only what he calls a "tarte classique", filled with whipped cream and perhaps a little chocolate in soft sponge cake. He said his humor can be traced back through Jerry Lewis, Wile E. Coyote, the Marx Brothers and yippies like Abbie Hoffman. Godin was inspired (for instance in his Anthologie de la subversion carabinée (1989)) by the works of the Utopian philosophers Tommaso Campanella (Civitas Solis) and Charles Fourier (La Phalange, Le Phalanstère). His ideal society is one where there is no struggle for power or money and where everybody can live in a state of perfect happiness. He was also an admirer of the anarchist Ravachol without approving his violence, sentiment which inspired him to his pie-attacks. Godin had a particularly colourful way of expressing himself, using terms like "tempêtes patissières" (pastry storm) to describe his pieing.