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Who ate all the pies?

Posted by Gary on March 14, 2003

In Reply to: Who ate all the pies? posted by john on March 14, 2003

: I see this referred to many times in English football. What is its origin? When?

This originated as a crowd chant at English football games. Football crowds can be very inventive with language, although much of it is unbroadcastable. Witness yesterday, when a Liverpool player was jostled by people in the crowd and then spat at them. The resulting headline - 'the spit hits the fan'. This time by a journalist but you get the drift.

Anyway, back to your question. English football fans have long been blessed with a tradition of eating meat pies at half time. Usually many thousands of pies are consumed. On occassion there aren't enough pies to go round. Any player looking a little overweight, e.g. Paul Gascoigne, aka 'Gazza' (who may have been the first to receive this chant) gets catcalled with 'who ate all the pies'.

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