Noid

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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 pizza 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

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[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 "The Sanctity of 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 as the character basis for many of the balloons.

Similarly, in the Family Guy episode "Deep Throats", Mayor Adam West warns Meg to tell the Noid that he'll snap his neck if he ruins his pizza's freshness. At the end of the scene, the Noid stomps on West's pizza. West forcefully dispatches him by beating him against the walls and breaking his neck (as he had promised several moments earlier) and remarks, "Perhaps it was the Noid who should have avoided me."^[1]

A glimpse of the Noid chasing Michael Jackson in the film Moonwalker can be seen early on in the film.

[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 is version 1.0 and has CGA graphics and PC speaker sound effects, although version 1.1 also exists which added support for EGA graphics and Adlib music.

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

[edit] Kenneth Lamar Noid

In 1989, Kenneth Lamar Noid, a mentally ill customer 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.