Noid

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The Noid on the game Avoid the Noid for DOS (EGA).

This article is about the advertising character. For the minimal surfaces, see noid (mathematics).

The Noid (voiced by Pons Maar) was an advertising character for Domino's Pizza in the 1980s. He was a villainous red-suited character who attempted to ruin Domino's pizzas but was constantly thwarted. The Noid was created by Group 243, the advertising agency for Domino's Pizza and was animated by Will Vinton Studios. The creative team of Ernie Perich (creative director), Gary Bastien (art director), Dave Larson (producer), Matthew Thornton (producer) and Phil Kneesi (writer) created the character and the television campaigns. Commercials that featured the character used the slogan "Avoid the Noid."

1 The Noid in pop culture
- 1.1 Television
- 1.2 Games
2 Kenneth Lamar Noid
3 References

[edit] The Noid in pop culture

[edit] Television

The Noid has made cameo appearances in several Simpsons episodes. For example, in "She of Little Faith," the Noid delivers a guest sermon on "deliciousness" while in "Homer vs. Dignity," the Noid appears as a Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. Marge Simpson comments, "Oh, look, it's the Noid! Avoid the Noid - he ruins pizzas!" in explaining the flash-in-the-pan characters used to make the balloons.

"Perhaps it was the Noid who should have avoided me."

Similarly, in the Family Guy episode 4x23 "Deep Throats," Mayor Adam West warns Meg to watch out for the Noid, because he fears he will destroy his pizza. At the end of the scene, the Noid attempts to destroy West's pizza. West brutally murders him by beating him against the walls and breaking his neck (as he had promised several minutes earlier) and remarks, "Perhaps it was the Noid who should have avoided me."^[1]

[edit] Games

As part of the advertising campaign, a computer game was released in 1989 called Avoid the Noid. The object of the game is to deliver a pizza within a half-hour time limit, in an apartment building swarming with noids (some of which are armed with heat-seeking or pizza-seeking missiles, or water balloons). The common version has CGA graphics, although an EGA version exists.

In 1990, Capcom released a different video game, Yo! Noid, for the NES.

[edit] Kenneth Lamar Noid

In 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid, who thought the ads were a personal attack on him, held two employees of an Atlanta, Georgia Domino's restaurant hostage for over five hours. After forcing them to make him a pizza and making demands for $100,000, getaway transportation and a copy of The Widow's Son, Noid surrendered to the police.^[2]

Noid was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, extortion and possession of a firearm during a crime. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Contrary to popular belief, this incident did not cause Domino's to pull the "Noid" campaign off the air; rather, Will Vinton Studios asked for a larger amount of money to continue animating the Noid commercials, and Domino's chose not to renew their contract.