Cake Is A Lie

"The cake is a lie" is a catchphrase from the 2007 game Portal. It appears as graffiti left by Doug Rattmann in the facility's hidden dens to warn that GLaDOS, who promises Chell cake for finishing the tests, is deceiving her and that the reward does not exist. Valve meant it as a minor, esoteric joke, but it became unexpectedly popular with players and then a widely spread internet meme used far outside the game, for instance as an idiom for chasing an empty, unattainable goal. Valve sold merchandise built around the phrase, and Erik Wolpaw deliberately avoided repeating the meme in Portal 2.