"Who Ate All the Pies?" is a

football chant A football chant or terrace chant is form of vocalisation performed by supporters of association football, typically during football matches. Football chanting is an expression of collective identity, most often used by fans to express their ...

sung by fans in the UK. It is usually sung to the tune of "

Knees Up Mother Brown "Knees Up Mother Brown" is a pub song, believed to date back as early as the 1800s, but first published in 1938, and with origins in the East End of London. With its origins in public houses of East London, it was associated with Cockney culture. ...

" and is aimed at overweight footballers, officials or other supporters.

Background and origin

The chant was first sung in 1894 by

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

supporters, and directed at the club's goalkeeper William "Fatty" Foulke, who weighed over . In his early career he played for Blackwell Colliery, subsequently playing for Sheffield United and Chelsea FC. If the tune used was

Knees up Mother Brown "Knees Up Mother Brown" is a pub song, believed to date back as early as the 1800s, but first published in 1938, and with origins in the East End of London. With its origins in public houses of East London, it was associated with Cockney culture. ...

, then it is highly improbable that the chant originated with Foulke who retired in 1907 and died in 1916; Knees up Mother Brown originated in 1918. Also, Foulke weighed in 1894, and according to sportswriters of the time, was nicknamed "the lengthy one" or "the octopus"; his weight gain came later.

The lyrics

The lyrics of the chant are: : Who ate all the pies? : Who ate all the pies? : You fat bastard, : You fat bastard, : You ate all the pies! A variation replaces the second line with "The burgers and the fries."

Adoption and inspiration

Part of the song (the third line - "You fat bastard") has been adopted by Roy "Chubby" Brown as his anthem and is enthusiastically chanted by the audiences during his stage performances. In addition, the entire chant was sung by Brown and the audience at the end of his 2013 DVD release "Who Ate All the Pies?" This line was also chanted at gigs by '90s indie band Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine and included as the intro on their album '' 30 Something''. It was chanted at their manager Jon Fat Beast, who had a tendency to appear on stage stripped to the waist, displaying his ample abdomen. The

Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism. History In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed meat ...

have used a variant of this, "Who ate all the peas?", as a slogan. They displayed it on promotional hoardings in football grounds as part of their "Men and Meat Campaign", intended to combat the idea that vegetarianism is unmanly. The chant has been associated with the striker

Micky Quinn Michael Quinn (born 2 May 1962) is an English former professional footballer and sports radio presenter for TalkSPORT. As a player he was a centre forward from 1979 until 1996. He most notably played in the Premier League for Coventry City, a ...

, who played for six football clubs in the 1980s and 1990s. He was particularly identified with the chant following an incident in a match between Quinn's then club Newcastle United and

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

in March 1992, in which a fan threw a pie onto the pitch which Quinn promptly picked up and ate. The chant even formed the title for Quinn's autobiography, which was published in 2003. During cricket matches, the chant is known to have been directed at players such as

Shane Warne Shane Keith Warne (13 September 1969 – 4 March 2022) was an Australian international cricketer, whose career ran from 1991 to 2007. Warne played as a right-arm leg spin bowler and a right-handed batsman for Victoria, Hampshire and Australi ...

, by spectators belonging to the Barmy Army.

Wayne Shaw controversy

In a February 2017 incident dubbed "piegate", 23-stone

Sutton United Sutton United Football Club is a professional football club in Sutton, South London, England, who play in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They play home games at Gander Green Lane in Sutton about 11 miles so ...

goalkeeper Wayne Shaw was fined and suspended by the FA for breaching gambling laws, after he ate a pie during a match and then admitted he saw there were odds of 8/1 on him doing so and tipped off his friends.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Who Ate All The Pies? English culture Football songs and chants Works about obesity