This is something that still baffles me when I see it in pie scenes. Need to know where I stand against the rest of the community.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kSQcGZj1-PY

I voted for "Doesn't matter" but then I started to think about it. Watch how Blue from the Colts pies people. It is a thing of beauty. And he does it by holding the edge of the pie.

I am honestly torn between the traditional way and the side-holding way.

I wish we could see more of these Blue-type pie-ings!

Would have voted for a 4th choice, "Totally acceptable! But I prefer it held by the bottom!"

Personally, if I see holding it by the edge in the preview pics then it's a no buy for me.

As with the "what do you think of black pies" poll, I wish my choice wasn't so extreme. I voted absolutely not, but that is a bit overboard. I would prefer a pie held by the side of the tin to no pie at all, but I also think it is important-- very important-- to stress that this method sucks 95% of the time.
No offense to the ladies out there, but almost all of the weak pie hits where it is held by the side of the tin are by female models. I get it, though. This isn't their thing. They have never pied someone and they don't want to hurt the other model. They are asked to pie someone so they do what comes natural. But the producer or the person paying the models has to make clear that this method of pieing is no bueno.

Hand flat under the tin, seeing a girl holding a pie like that immediately turns me on

I know everyone loves Blue now, but his pies are just shaving cream (remember SC? the thing pie fans used to hate?) on a small pie tin. (The kind with no sharp edges, for reasons below.)
The thing weighs less than an ounce and is basically closer to a "baseball player pie" (shaving cream on a towel or similar) rather than what we use. So his technique is simply wiping the shaving cream up and over someone's face, like a brush.
It makes for a great visual, but if you tried that with a REAL pie (AKA whipped cream and filling), most of it would fall out using that method. And you'd risk cutting the target's face if using a standard (sharp-edged) tin.

Shaving cream/clown pies aren't subject to the same laws of physics as "normal" pies and so there's a lot of techniques that work for those pies, but nothing else.

This is what I was gonna say and then SStuff beat me to it, but I'll say it anyway:

Seems like a good cool whip pie or similar would just slide out of the tin, or you run the risk of hitting them with the edge of the tin. I feel like a pie should almost be tossed or lobbed with the flat of the hand like a shot put and not so much thrown sideway like a discus...too much could go wrong.

It doesn't really matter to me how the person doing the pieing holds it, I pay attention to how the person getting pied reacts.

All depends. If the pie is delivered from above with the target lying on the floor then holding the tin by the edges is ok. If the pie is thrown then the hand might be better underneath the tin.

The "method" that drives me crazy is when the model holds the pie gently on either side of the tin, and then attempts to basically lightly, ever-so-gently, toss the contents of the pie tin on the other model's face from a few inches away. I can't stand that, personally. All you get is about a fourth of the pie landing in the model's face, and the rest falls down to the floor, or whatever. I honestly have no idea where that comes from, but it is the worst combination of throwing and splatting that I have ever seen. It seems to be exclusively a female thing. I've never seen a man do it.

I prefer the hand under the tin application. You get a decent splatter effect, and you don't have to try to take the other person's head off with it to achieve results.

Glad to see so many "flat palmers" in the community!

Hand flat under the tin in dominant hand, non dominant hand behind the girls head, smash the cream pie in the face and slide up over the top of her head fully covering her in heavy cream and pie crust.