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The Noid is an advertising character for Domino's Pizza created in the 1980s and briefly revived several times. Clad in a red, skin-tight, rabbit-eared body suit with a black N inscribed in a white circle on his chest, the Noid is a physical manifestation of all the challenges in delivering a pizza within 30 minutes. Though persistent, his efforts are repeatedly thwarted.
In 1988, a Saturday morning cartoon series called The Noids was planned by CBS, but was canceled amid complaints that it was merely an advertising ploy and not a show for children.
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 pizza-seeking missiles or water balloons). In 1990, Capcom released a platform game, Yo! Noid, for the Nintendo Entertainment System, where the Noid was portrayed as a pizza-consuming hero instead.
After ranting to the employees that the then-owner of Domino's, Tom Monaghan, was fraudulent and had stolen his name, he first forced them to call the Domino's headquarters to demand $100,000 and a white limousine as getaway transportation for him. After offering to exchange a hostage for a copy of American postmodern author Robert Anton Wilson's 1985 novel The Widow's Son, Noid reneged on his offer when an officer brought him the book. Noid then became hungry and forced the captive employees to make him two pizzas. While Noid ate the pizzas with his gun in his lap, the hostages escaped. Noid surrendered to the police shortly after. Two shots were fired by Noid during the incident, both of them hitting the ceiling.
Noid was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, extortion, and possession of a firearm during a crime. He was found Acquittal by Insanity defense. Noid subsequently spent time in a mental institution, but died by suicide on February 23, 1995. This incident was widely believed to have caused Domino's Pizza to discontinue advertising using the Noid as their mascot, but this claim has been rejected by the company and their advertisers.
In June 2016, Spooky Pinball LLC announced the release of its new licensed pinball machine, Domino's Spectacular Pinball Adventure prominently featuring the Noid character. During 2016, the Noid appeared and was referenced in some Domino's commercials, as part of their USA "Pizza Payback" campaign.
In August 2017, a fan-made sequel to Yo! Noid was created for the New Jam City 2017 game jam called .
The Noid is briefly in the background of a 2017 Domino's advertisement.
The Noid returned to television in April 2021 in a series of brief video advertisements on social media. Domino's officially confirmed the return of the Noid later in the month, and he was subsequently included in the mobile game as part of a tie-in promotion.
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