the cake is a lie

From the video game Portal (2007), in which a self-aware computer, GLaDOS, lures the player into participating in dangerous experiments with the promise of a cake. As the game progresses, the player discovers graffiti left by the only previous test subject to survive GLaDOS' murderous scheme, including the warning the cake is a lie.

• Audio (US):

  (file)

the cake is a lie

1. (Internet slang) The end being pursued is unattainable or misguided; the reward promised is false.
   • 2011 December 15, Nick Martin, “A Hit Sitcom In Just Five Easy Steps!”, in Buzz Weekly, page 6:

     The jokes are cake, and the cake is a lie — fan-service tricking nerds into watching a show designed for adults who vote Republican (Middle America!).

   • 2012, James Margeson, "The quiet assault on public education", The Sphinx (University of Liverpool), March 2012, page 9:

     The assumption that a degree will vastly improve future earnings is increasingly misleading. By their very nature high paid jobs are exclusive and limited in number. "The cake is a lie."

   • 2012 November 12, J. L. Hilton, Stellarnet Prince, Carina Press, →ISBN, page 320:

     “One shitty leader doesn't mean the cake is a lie. One man's decisions don't invalidate everything else—the ideals, the history, the words etched in marble and the sacrifices of all the people who make the United States a just and safe place to live.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:the cake is a lie.