When it comes to ridiculous, made-up, novelty days, Friday the 13th is so last month. March, you see, belongs to a ridiculous, made-up, novelty day that comes around annually but has a once-every-hundred-years twist in 2015.

It’s Pi Day, people.

This year’s Pi Day, which is Saturday, owns the distinction of having the date’s numerals—3/14/15—also being the first five numerals in the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter—3.1415. Because of this event, you won’t see this many militant math-tivists with tingles in their swimsuit area until the next Square Root Day.¹

But we’re a nation of arithmophobics. When most of us hear the word “pie,” our brains generate mental images of flaky crusts filled with cream, sweet potatoes, cherries, pumpkin or apples, not mental images of this: π

And really, which would you prefer to be stranded with on a desert island: a mathematical constant or a tasty dessert?

That’s why, for this very special Pi Day, we’ve put together a parade of some of pop culture’s pleasing pie and pie-pertinent proceedings that might’ve passed you by.²

1. Twin Peaks: “Whoever invented the pie? Here was a great person”

The importance of a delicious slice of pie—accompanied by a cup of “damn good coffee,” of course—was introduced early on in this classic ABC series. FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) makes note of it in a recording to Diane in the pilot episode. But nothing drives this message home more than the Log Lady’s earnest soliloquy in the second season. If there was a pie cult in the early 1990s, this would be the recruiting video from its leader.

2. “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right to Party,” Beastie Boys video: “We Can Invite All Our Friends and Have Soda and Pie”

The Beastie Boys claim they always intended this song as a parody of boorish, frat boy, party antics, not an endorsement of them. But apparently it took a musicless version of the tune’s video, which features more pie flinging than you can shake a pair of Filas at, for some people to get the message.  

3. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut: Pie = 100 percent meeting attendance

The most important lesson Cartman ever imparted on his audience was that the promise of pie—and punch—are a surefire guarantee of putting asses in seats for your resistance meeting, marketing conference and/or timeshare sales pitch.

But expect a few bailouts if you don’t deliver on the tasty goods.

5. Anita Bryant Pied in the Face: They’re here, they’re queer, they’re in her face

During the 1970s, the singer, orange juice spokeswoman and devout homophobe was a vocal crusader against gay rights, hoping to either push homosexuals into the arms of Jesus or into the flames of Hell. That made her the target of one of the first bits of civil disobedience by dessert when a gay-rights activist threw a banana cream pie in her face in 1977 during a press conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The creamy comeuppance didn’t stop Bryant from double-downing on the hate to remark immediately afterward that at least it was a fruit pie.

6. Cheers: “Thanksgiving Orphans”

One of the long-running gags during the series was the fact that no one ever saw the face of Vera, the oft-mentioned wife of Cheers regular Norm Peterson (George Wendt). So the idea that viewers would “meet” her for the first time during the Season 5 Thanksgiving episode was kind of a big deal. That’s also what makes the ending of an already-entertaining episode so perfect thanks to the ill-timed toss of a pumpkin pie by Diane (Shelley Long).

7. The Peculiar Purple Pieman of Porcupine Peak

This Strawberry Shortcake character was voiced by the late Robert Ridgely throughout the 1980s. Ridgely also was the voice of Thundarr the Barbarian, and he played the Colonel in Boogie Nights. Plus, check out the little song-and-dance number he puts on. All of that’s enough to make this list.

8. “Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” The Four Tops

The original recording of this single is backed by the legendary Funk Brothers, and it’s one of those infectious songs that not only gets your ass off the couch but immediately puts you in a good mood. Also, if you call your special someone “sugar pie, honey bunch,” and s/he doesn’t smile, then that’s a sure sign you need out of that relationship.

9. Waitress: Watch it with I’m Happy, Now I’m Sad Pie

This 2007 film centering around a waitress with a remarkable knack for baking perfect pies for every situation leaves a bittersweet taste in your mouth. The sweet part comes from the fact that the movie is legitimately sweet and funny thanks to the wonderful onscreen mixture of Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines and Andy Griffith. The bitter part, though, is that it was writer-director Adrienne Shelley’s final movie. Shelley was murdered during a robbery attempt at her apartment in 2006, almost a year before the film was released.

10. Blazing Saddles: The great pie fight

What more needs to be said about the king cowboy of all pie fights? Nothing. Instead we’ll come full circle back to math by talking about how director Mel Brooks settled out of court with early Hollywood screen legend Hedy Lamarr over her claim that naming a character Hedley Lamarr was an invasion of the actress’ privacy. Besides being an accomplished actress and sex symbol, Lamarr—the real-life person, not the character—also was a brilliant inventor and mathematician. In fact, she helped develop a frequency-hopping patent that is the foundation of modern Bluetooth and Wi-Fi technology.

FOOTNOTES

¹ It’s April 4, 2016, in case you wondering.

² That’s why we’ve kept Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” and the entire American Pie film franchise off this list. Do you really need—or want, for that matter—to read about these pies?