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a bigger lie than the cake

A huge lie that no one will ever believe to be true
Dude 1: If you stick a finger in that electric socket, I'll give you a million dollars.

Dude 2: Sweet!

Dude 3: Don't do it, man. The million dollars is a bigger lie than the cake.
by KnightofNerdom December 25, 2018
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What I call homo-sapiens who are addicted to perianal abscesses.
"They Had Us In The First Half, Not Going To Lie《¤》: The First Juvenile Release....
by LeSouffleDeVersailles February 2, 2025
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the cake is a lie

Roughly translates to "your promised reward is merely a fictitious motivator". Popularized by the game "Portal" (found on Half-Life 2's "Orange Box" game release for PC, X-Box 360, and PS3). During the game, an electronic voice encourages you to solve intricate puzzles using cake as a motivating perk. When you have "broken out" of the game's initial testing phase (from threat of death), you find scrawls on walls of the innards of the testing center warning you that "the cake is a lie".
Employee #1: Yo, Dave, manager says we will probably get a promotion if we meet the sales expectations for this quarter.

Employee #2: Yeah, so, don't get your hopes up on that one, Ed. The cake is a lie.

Employee #1: Really, aw crap.
by Mike Grant October 30, 2007
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The cake is a lie

Implies that a promised reward for one's work is false, with the one proffering the reward never intending to give it in the first place, possibly because the reward never even existed (see also: "there is no spoon"). This phrase can be used to express grief or frustration regarding any situation where there is an imbalance between effort and reward. This phrase was popularized by the game "Portal" by Valve Software Corporation.

During the game, GlaDOS, an artificially intelligent operating system and the game's passive-aggressive guide, uses the reward of cake as a motivating factor in an attempt to manipulate the player. It is first mentioned during the "impossible puzzle room", where she urges the player to "quit now and cake will be served immediately". In a later stage, the player can access a "hidden" area of the testing chamber to find a previous test participant had scrawled "The cake is a lie!" among other warning messages. Cake continues to remain the promised reward for completing the test and/or obeying GlaDOS, particularly in the final stages of the game. Finally, in the ending song, GlaDOS cheerfully sings about how "there's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying 'till you run out of cake."

In the game, cake serves as a carefully calculated motivational device, but there are suggestions that it also serves as an essence of humanity--the ability to eat cake, taste it, and experience emotional pleasure from it--which a computer cannot experience even with artificial intelligence. In this less commonly-used sense, the phrase "the cake is a lie" can also imply that one's emotions or the basis of one's emotions are false, with cake representing emotion, emotional basis, or emotional capability.
Common Usage Example --
Bob: "We worked hard this quarter, where's the raises you promised?"
George: "Sorry, Bob, the company is making some cut-backs; no raises this year."
Bob: "So the cake is a lie. Why did we have to work so hard, then?"
by Wyrenth March 17, 2009
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The Devil is a Lie

Saying usually used by Christians in the rural southeastern and mid-western United States, usually meaning the person saying it disagrees with another person
Someone told me 2 years ago that gas was gone be over $2.50 in the next few years, and I told him the devil is a lie, but it looks like I was wrong
by Cow Guy666 June 15, 2021
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I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.

Quote from the movie Scarface.

It's a matter of perspectives, and that there's truth in the way of things. When you lie, you also tell the truth because that lie is real because the truth is real, the truth being false, would make the lie true.
You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie.
by Bona27 February 27, 2010
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