67-year-old devout Christian, Tony Overheu, will be sitting in Perth Magistrates Court this week answering to multiple charges after walking on stage and smashing a lemon meringue pie into Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce’s face. From the cake shop to the courthouse.

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Tony says he strolled onstage during Joyce’s press conference and slammed the lemon meringue pie into Joyce’s face to make a political statement against “social engineering”.

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The statement was this. Corporations (Qantas) should not push (advocate for) their own social agendas (same sex marriage). Challenging the encroachment of public corporations into private spheres isn’t so radical. Corporations are meant to be public entities, distinct from the legislative and judiciary and accordingly, our private lives. But today, they’re not. Corporations encroach into our personal lives every day. And for Tony, a fervent Christian who opposes same sex marriage, this encroachment would be especially intrusive. A hugely powerful corporation is lobbying for something, which goes against his very personal, religious and moral values.

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But his choice of lemon meringue pie just ruined any chance he had of getting his message across.

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This is because throwing a pie in someone’s face isn’t going to win you any friends in Australia. In Australia, we like fair battles and this wasn't a fair battle. Tony snuck in from behind and shoved the pie into Joyce’s face. Joyce was in the middle of speaking, doing his job, and had no opportunity to defend himself. Essentially, Joyce was hit with a coward punch (just with heaps of cream) …and there is nothing Australians hate more than a coward punch.

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 Without even knowing the background to this story, the look of pure confusion and innocence on Joyce’s face would be enough to put Tony in the sin bin. All you want to do is wrap Joyce up in a blanket and take him somewhere to get cleaned up. But you don’t have to. Joyce handled the incident like a pro, making Qantas and the marriage equality cause come out on top.

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So the irony of the whole thing is that corporations now look like the good guys and Tony looks like the nasty intruder.

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All aboard the marriage equality train.

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Thank god for lemon meringue pies.