Noel Godin, a Belgian comedian, writer and activist who targeted celebrities with custard pies, plastering notables from Jean-Luc Godard to Bill Gates in the face, died on Sunday. He was 80.
Godin’s partner, Sylvie Broodthaers, confirmed his death to the Belga News Agency.
Godin earned the nickname of “Glooper” because of his penchant of yelling “Gloop! Gloop!” after he’d throw a pie in a celebrity’s face, AFP reported. He spent more than three decades tossing pies at celebrities.
He operated under the pseudonym of Georges Le Gloupier, according to Parade. The attacks became known in French as entartage - the art of pieing someone.
In addition to Gates and Godard, the Brussels resident also pied singer Patrick Bruel; journalist Patrick Poivre d’Arvor; and Bernard-Henri Lévy, whom he targeted seven different times, according to AFP.
Calling himself an “anarcho-confectioner,” Godin’s first target was French novelist-playwright Marguerite Duras in 1969, the Brussels Times reported. However, his “best coup” remains Gates in 1998, Godin has told media outlets.
Godin always insisted that he refused “contract pie attacks,” AFP reported, adding that he had been offered “a lot of money” to target Sharon Stone and Catherine Deneuve at the Cannes Film Festival.
Can’t we track down Noël Godin?
— Mambo Italiano (@mamboitaliano__) January 30, 2026
The Belgian gentleman who, back in 1998, threw a pie in Bill Gates’ face?
Just to give him a sweet little honor 🍰🎖️pic.twitter.com/f9UHKGBchk
“We’re not mercenaries,” he said in a 2021 interview, describing himself as pursuing “a burlesque form of pacifism.”
One of Godin’s most recent victims was Irish billionaire Michael O’Leary, the CEO of Ryanair, whom he claimed to have hit with a pie in September 2023 outside the European Commission in Brussels, the Times reported.
When Godin hit French presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Chevenement with a pineapple pie in 2002, it led lawmakers in France to declare pie throwing a crime, according to AFP.
A court convicted and fined Godin, who took his case to France’s highest court before losing on appeal, the news outlet reported.
Henri-Levy proved to be Godin’s favorite target, connecting with pies from 1985 to 2015.
“To be honest, when he is no longer around, I’ll be at a loss,” Godin joked to AFP.
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