This Is Delicious Cake You Must Eat It
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About
This Is Delicious Cake You Must Eat It is a popular expression originating on anonymous board Futaba Channel (2chan) in 2007 originally used as a code to signal taboo material to other users before becoming a more general catchphrase in image macros and demotivational posters on 4chan in 2008. The phrase is often used alongside images of characters eating cake and inspired a puzzle trend where 4chan users draw out a dangerous scenario leading to cake, and other users detail how they would solve it.
Origin
Super Mario 64, Portal
According to Encyclopedia Dramatica[1] the phrase is inspired by the ending of the videogame Super Mario 64 where Princess Peach awards Mario with a delicious cake for saving her, an arguably small reward for such a dangerous endeavor. The 2007 video game Portal is also said to have inspired the meme, as it similarly tempts the player with cake for completing dangerous tasks, and its release coincides with the rise of the phrase.
Futaba Board
On January 13th, 2008, Giant in the Playground[4] forum user Pronounceable made a thread titled, "Why is Cake a Lie? [oops]" asking for the origins of the meme. Later that day, a user named Holammer posted a reply detailing how the "Delicious Cake" and The Cake Is a Lie memes started on Futuba Channel (which would eventually become 2chan before being removed from the web) as a signal for sharing child pornography and loli content on now-defunct message boards like 711chan and 12chan (shown below).
![O 2008-01-13, 04:51 PM (IsO 8801) Spoilers - Top - End - #36 Holammer o E Re: Why is Cake a Lie? [oops] Barbarian in the Playground EE Originally Posted by Yeril m Just a matter of curiosity, where has the meme "Cake is a Lie" came from? I've heard it so much latley. (long winded explanation, get some tea folks) Most people believe it refers to the game Portal from Valve. There is a reference in-game and in the ending song. But that itself is a reference to something different altogether. This is also where it gets ugly. Join Date: Jun 2007 Well, this is difficult, as one normally wouldn't want to admit you're even remotely aware about what the "cake is a lie" and "delicious cake" is all about. In fact, I made a spit-take when I heard the portal song and it came to the "anyway this cake is great, it's so delicious and moist" part. See... Once upon a time there was an image board/forum on "teh interwebs" called Futuba Channel where Japanese otaku's posted pictures and discussed stuff. The forums had no registration system and were lightly moderated. But it was impossible/hard for people outside Japan to post there at all by design. This in turn spawned a number of similar sites in a similar style. When you post on these sites you always do it without registration and there is a tradition to post as "anonymous". In fact, posting with a nick is frowned upon and people often thank "anonymous" when "anonymous delivers". Location: Under the Mountain Gender: So far so good. So one of these clones became very popular and it turned into the meeting place for the scum and villainy of the internet. Site was divided into a number of sub sections such as /b (random) /vg (videogames) /cat (cats!) modelled after the Japanese original. You get the picture. This site produced a high number of internet Memes. One of "their" Memes was "Delicious Cake" which was a picture of "you" and a cake. People edited the picture and posted their solutions. This is not logical stuff mind you, people posted downright racist solutions to reaching the cake or advanced mathematical formula, even philosophical approaches. Delicious Cake never really spread much as it was largely in-jokes that didn't translate into good humour outside their message board. You'll probably find a few pictures with solution if you search on the subject. With this in mind you can pretty much figure out how the reference in the song makes perfect sense in Portal. Sadly the cake itself is a reference. As the site was neatly organised into several sub section as mentioned before. Most were 1 to 3 letter abbreviations except for one which was /cake and unlike the others it didn't make much sense, more about that later. As you could post pretty much anything on the site anonymously it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a large portion of this material was pornographic in nature and here comes the boot the head! /cake was and became a codeword for anime style Lolicon material. Due to the obviously controversial content of /cake it often became a target for floods of posts and pictures that made Goatse.cx appear as refined art. This in turn coined "cake is a lie" when posted pictures depicted something not being the expected cake. I have seen this question asked before and I feel I owe it the Internet to give a proper answer for once. I was actually surprised when Portal referred to cake in this obvious way. It's clear the high-ups in Valve had no idea what their mischievous staff actually put in there. The site mentioned in this text distanced itself from /cake awhile ago and it was separated to another site which was "not" the site in question. If you ever hear about "fail", "lolcats", "nom nom nom", "surprise buttsex" or "MOAR". This is the site that spawned them all, including cake. (never been harder to hit the "submit reply" button... Geez!) Edit: Before someone points out inaccurate claims, "site mentioned" is actually somewhat innocent of using /cake. They used /l and an offshoot site much similar to the original adopted /cake. Still the same audience. But I just wanted to clarify this.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/002/054/378/92e.png "Delicious Cake True Origin")
This theory is supported in a now-removed March 6th, 2008, upload by YouTuber[3] anonymousexposed titled "Anonymous' exploitation of children" which describes the origins of the meme and includes screenshots of users on boards like 711chan and 12chan using the phrase to signal jailbait content (shown below in reupload).
Although the meme began as a signal for loli content, that context seemed to have been somewhat forgotten when it was adopted by 4chan.
Spread
On February 18th, 2008, an anonymous user of 4chan's /a/[2] board posted an image of an anime maid offering a spoonful of cake to the viewer alongside the caption, "Meido Vanilla wants you to eat her delicious cake. Is this awesome?" (shown below). This is one of the earliest available 4chan posts using a variation of the phrase alongside a cake-related image.
Delicious Cake Puzzle
On or prior to August 29th, 2007, as evidenced by a screenshot from Encyclopedia Dramatica,[4] an anonymous user of 4chan's /b/ board posted an image made in Microsoft Paint depicting a blue dot on the left labeled "you," and red dot on the right labeled "DELICIOUS CAEK!," and a burning city between the two labeled, "Detroit City and it's infestation of crack head n***ers…," the idea being that users find a solution to reach the cake. It's unknown if this is the first post of its kind.
The post resulted in numerous solutions via text reply and edits of the original image, showing how users might get through the city to reach the cake. It also inspired users to create new variations of the problem for each other to solve.
General 4chan Use
Following the cake puzzle trend, the phrase is mostly used on 4chan, often alongside imagery of characters and people eating cake in order to signal temptation or as a random meme (examples shown below).
Various Examples
Search Interest
Unavailable.
External References
[1] Dramatica.online – Delicious Cake
[2] 4chan – Meido Vanilla wants you to eat her delicious cake. Is this awesome?
[3] YouTube – Anonymous' exploitation of children
[4] Dramatica.online – Cake-answers
Related Entries 2 total
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![O 2008-01-13, 04:51 PM (IsO 8801) Spoilers - Top - End - #36 Holammer o E Re: Why is Cake a Lie? [oops] Barbarian in the Playground EE Originally Posted by Yeril m Just a matter of curiosity, where has the meme "Cake is a Lie" came from? I've heard it so much latley. (long winded explanation, get some tea folks) Most people believe it refers to the game Portal from Valve. There is a reference in-game and in the ending song. But that itself is a reference to something different altogether. This is also where it gets ugly. Join Date: Jun 2007 Well, this is difficult, as one normally wouldn't want to admit you're even remotely aware about what the "cake is a lie" and "delicious cake" is all about. In fact, I made a spit-take when I heard the portal song and it came to the "anyway this cake is great, it's so delicious and moist" part. See... Once upon a time there was an image board/forum on "teh interwebs" called Futuba Channel where Japanese otaku's posted pictures and discussed stuff. The forums had no registration system and were lightly moderated. But it was impossible/hard for people outside Japan to post there at all by design. This in turn spawned a number of similar sites in a similar style. When you post on these sites you always do it without registration and there is a tradition to post as "anonymous". In fact, posting with a nick is frowned upon and people often thank "anonymous" when "anonymous delivers". Location: Under the Mountain Gender: So far so good. So one of these clones became very popular and it turned into the meeting place for the scum and villainy of the internet. Site was divided into a number of sub sections such as /b (random) /vg (videogames) /cat (cats!) modelled after the Japanese original. You get the picture. This site produced a high number of internet Memes. One of "their" Memes was "Delicious Cake" which was a picture of "you" and a cake. People edited the picture and posted their solutions. This is not logical stuff mind you, people posted downright racist solutions to reaching the cake or advanced mathematical formula, even philosophical approaches. Delicious Cake never really spread much as it was largely in-jokes that didn't translate into good humour outside their message board. You'll probably find a few pictures with solution if you search on the subject. With this in mind you can pretty much figure out how the reference in the song makes perfect sense in Portal. Sadly the cake itself is a reference. As the site was neatly organised into several sub section as mentioned before. Most were 1 to 3 letter abbreviations except for one which was /cake and unlike the others it didn't make much sense, more about that later. As you could post pretty much anything on the site anonymously it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a large portion of this material was pornographic in nature and here comes the boot the head! /cake was and became a codeword for anime style Lolicon material. Due to the obviously controversial content of /cake it often became a target for floods of posts and pictures that made Goatse.cx appear as refined art. This in turn coined "cake is a lie" when posted pictures depicted something not being the expected cake. I have seen this question asked before and I feel I owe it the Internet to give a proper answer for once. I was actually surprised when Portal referred to cake in this obvious way. It's clear the high-ups in Valve had no idea what their mischievous staff actually put in there. The site mentioned in this text distanced itself from /cake awhile ago and it was separated to another site which was "not" the site in question. If you ever hear about "fail", "lolcats", "nom nom nom", "surprise buttsex" or "MOAR". This is the site that spawned them all, including cake. (never been harder to hit the "submit reply" button... Geez!) Edit: Before someone points out inaccurate claims, "site mentioned" is actually somewhat innocent of using /cake. They used /l and an offshoot site much similar to the original adopted /cake. Still the same audience. But I just wanted to clarify this.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/054/378/92e.png "Delicious Cake True Origin")
![Congratulations, subject 15837. You have finished all of your tasks as atest participant. Your reward is waiting in the middle of this room, and you will be taken away through the exit door as soon as you are ready. (Press IENTER] to close) Cake! C.3 It is delicious cake..yau must eat it!](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/000/203/740/615px-Portalcaek.JPG "615px-Portalcaek.JPG")
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