Shirt.Woot

The Cake is a Liar shirt by MJ has been brought back by shirt.woot for a limited time.



Don't miss out on this opportunity to own one of the old school shirt.woot shirts. And don't worry, the art elitists even think this shirt is a good pop culture shirt, so your "I only like good art" status will remain in tact.

Yaaaay!! Moar caaaeeeek.

Nice to see this back, MJ! I wasn't here when it was originally for sale, so it's cool to see it now. :D Let the Portaling begin!

I'm really excited about this. I saw when JadenKale posted it on Twitter, but have no clue where it's been officially posted anywhere.

kevlar51 wrote:I'm really excited about this. I saw when JadenKale posted it on Twitter, but have no clue where it's been officially posted anywhere.

I got an email about it, so maybe all Woot memebers are receiving the same email. I also twittered it to help get the word around.

bassanimation wrote:I got an email about it, so maybe all Woot memebers are receiving the same email. I also twittered it to help get the word around.

I can confirm the email notification as I got one also, and the only (other) time Woot emails is the day before a WootOff.

I was so excited to get that email this morning. Just bought it, and I should be receiving my The Cheese is a Liederkranz shirt today in the mail. Portal shirts are ftw!

hmmm no e-mail here. not in spam box either. come to think of it, I don't remember the last time I got any sort of woot newsletter.

bluchez wrote:And don't worry, the art elitists even think this shirt is a good pop culture shirt, so your "I only like good art" status will remain in tact.

Hahaha ... but I think these said art elitists will still be ranting about something else instead, like "how dare Woot brings back something so great again?!". Or something like that.

kevlar51 wrote:hmmm no e-mail here. not in spam box either. come to think of it, I don't remember the last time I got any sort of woot newsletter.

Seconded. I didn't get an email or update of any sort.

I feel like the others who got such info are privillaged sniffles

bluejester wrote:Seconded. I didn't get an email or update of any sort.

I feel like the others who got such info are privillaged sniffles

In your "my account" profile, did you check the box to receive newsletters?

bluejester wrote:Seconded. I didn't get an email or update of any sort.

I feel like the others who got such info are privillaged sniffles

Why does woot hate bluejester and kevlar51?

lrewis2030 wrote:In your "my account" profile, did you check the box to receive newsletters?

yes

Looks to me that Woot's email servers are about as reliable as their processing servers when a Big o' Cosmos is up for sale ...

bluejester wrote:Seconded. I didn't get an email or update of any sort.

I feel like the others who got such info are privillaged sniffles

Thirded. I get the occasional email from woot but received no notification about Cake coming back.

IndependentVik wrote:Thirded. I get the occasional email from woot but received no notification about Cake coming back.

Me too! I don't post often, but I have tons of shirts (more than in my profile-box because I used to just purchase from an old boyfriend's account), and I never get emails from woot. They send out notifications about woot-offs?

I never picked up Cake when it was first around. I don't play Portal, but I still thought it was a fun shirt... just wasn't on my must-have list. The question is, do I want it now? hmm.

februarystar27 wrote:They send out notifications about woot-offs?

Not in so many words, no.
Being Woot, they DO send emails along the lines of "hey, we're lonely, would you like to chat? Stop over at Woot.com tomorrow for some fun chat sessions" which is code for "Woot-Off!"

(note: they never sent the above text, it was dramatic license on my part)

ETA: I feel this shirt is too "Geek Culture", and won't be buying it (though I do have a pair of "Cheese" on the way ).

The Cake Is a Liar was the one that got away...so glad I got a second chance to buy it.

I still have my shirt from when it first printed. It's still in great condition so I don't really need a replacement. I would have liked to have seen a different color option though. I like the orange less and less every year.

agingdragqueen wrote:It's funny to me that no one read the email long enough to note that it was sent only to people who ordered The Cheese is a Liederkranz. I didn't either and I was mad at first since I had no idea why I wasn't included in the email.

Seems logical, but I didn't order The Cheese is a Liederkranz but still got the email.

agingdragqueen wrote:It's funny to me that no one read the email long enough to note that it was sent only to people who ordered The Cheese is a Liederkranz. I didn't either and I was mad at first since I had no idea why I wasn't included in the email.

Not so.
Here's my email:

THE CAKE LIES. THIS EMAIL DOES NOT.
Yo yo j5, check it —
Everybody knows that when you've got a hit on your hands, the most lucrative thing you can do is put out a sequel. And the next-most-lucrative is reissue the hit itself.
So those of you who made The Cake is a Liar one of Shirt.Woot's all-time top sellers should know that it's now back for a limited time.
Maybe your furious gaming has worn holes in your first one. Maybe you accidentally ate it one night in a Portal-induced trance. Maybe you threw it into a glowing hole and have no idea where it came out.

Whatever the case, don't miss the chance to get The Cake is a Liar back in your life. And if you're the kind of person who owns multiple t-shirts about the same video game, we won't judge you for buying The Cheese is a Liederkranz, the other Shirt.Woot tee inspired by the Portal franchise.
We're very tolerant of the foibles of others when those foibles might make us some money.
Your ruthless capitalist "friends" at —
Shirt.Woot

And I don't understand the hate towards "Cheese", despite the volumes of spent words on why cake is "art" and "cheese" is kitsch (with which I disagree)

j5 wrote:And I don't understand the hate towards "Cheese", despite the volumes of spent words on why cake is "art" and "cheese" is kitsch (with which I disagree)

Short version. Cake is funny and makes sense even (or especially) if you have never seen, heard, or had any idea that portal existed. Cheese is just portal with a mouse. Cake is what parody should be. Cheese isn't parody. It's unlicensed merchandise.

agingdragqueen wrote:It's funny to me that no one read the email long enough to note that it was sent only to people who ordered The Cheese is a Liederkranz. I didn't either and I was mad at first since I had no idea why I wasn't included in the email.

How could I have read it? I didn't get it!

mrwednesday wrote:I still have my shirt from when it first printed. It's still in great condition so I don't really need a replacement. I would have liked to have seen a different color option though. I like the orange less and less every year.

I'm currently wearing the only other orange t-shirt I own (Kitty Gratis).

I got my Cake is a Liar right before it reckoned, so it's still in excellent shape. As you mentioned, I'm always amused that the people who find it funniest tend not to be familiar with Portal.

I don't know anything about Portal, but this shirt is so wearable to me. That cake has been lying to me all my life! Congrats on the re-print, MJ. :D

mrwednesday wrote:Short version. Cake is funny and makes sense even (or especially) if you have never seen, heard, or had any idea that portal existed. Cheese is just portal with a mouse. Cake is what parody should be. Cheese isn't parody. It's unlicensed merchandise.

Yes I've seen this argument and I disagree. I don't play games, and therefore don't own portal 1 or 2 , but I've known about orange box and "cake is a lie" from the get-go due to working with techies. "Cake" is geek culture (and by now a full blown meme-in-decline). While the joke may stand alone outside of portal, I find it equivalent to Dane Cook humor and not interested. I'm not fond of the "iconographic" depiction, either. (I like this one better, but not sure of the origins)
Cheese stands alone also. It shows a techno mouse going through a techno mouse-hole. Done. My son wanted one and he has no clue for portal, he just thought it was cool. Yes, it's a 2-sided gimmick, and yes it uses portal elements. Unlicensed merch? Hardly.
Level of parody is equivalent.

j5 I got the same email you did...but I DID buy a Cheese shirt. In fact, it was the 1st woot shirt I bought less than a month ago...I got an email about that shirt from Amazon after buying the Portal 2 videogame from them. I've bought many designs already, and don't see it stopping any time soon! Even though I now see that the email was botched a bit and I should have gotten the one that goldenthorn got, I'm still psyched that I get a chance to pick up this piece of woot history AND another cool Portal shirt (in one)!

Sorry if the elitists pick on me for not being "vintage" but I don't care in the least! =)

laggyg wrote:
Sorry if the elitists pick on me for not being "vintage" but I don't care in the least! =)

Anti-hipster....

Cool!
I actually wore my Liederkranz shirt today, and was happily surprised to see the woot email this morning!

j5 wrote:Yes I've seen this argument and I disagree. I don't play games, and therefore don't own portal 1 or 2 , but I've known about orange box and "cake is a lie" from the get-go due to working with techies. "Cake" is geek culture (and by now a full blown meme-in-decline). While the joke may stand alone outside of portal, I find it equivalent to Dane Cook humor and not interested. I'm not fond of the "iconographic" depiction, either. (I like this one better, but not sure of the origins)
Cheese stands alone also. It shows a techno mouse going through a techno mouse-hole. Done. My son wanted one and he has no clue for portal, he just thought it was cool. Yes, it's a 2-sided gimmick, and yes it uses portal elements. Unlicensed merch? Hardly.
Level of parody is equivalent.

Edit- this was a lot longer, so I pared it down for eye soreness' sake.

I can see why someone would like "Cheese" beyond its reference, but I also sincerely doubt that Bass designed it with people who aren't familiar with Portal but dig Techno mice in mind.

With "Cake", the parody is as much of "The Treachery of Images" (or at least its genre) as it is of "Portal". It's an absurd little image. "Cheese" (which I don't dislike, for the record), regardless of quality, is a Portal reference and a Portal reference alone.

Regardless of the quality of the shirts, the parody between the two is not equivalent because "Cheese" is barely a parody, while "Cake" is a double parody.

goldenthorn wrote:I kinda really liked having my Cake Is a Liar shirts being so rare and unpurchaseable.

They had some during the last random, so for at least a little while, there was some trading going on.

Now how am I supposed to distinguish my "first run" shirt from this come-lately reprint, huh?

LEMME SEE YOUR COLLAR TAG!

Some early woot shirts came with the regular AA tags. Otherwise, the older woot tags read:
made in the usa by
american apparel
of 100% cotton.
machine wash cold,
tumble dry low.
not for use as pants.

The newer woot tags read:
made in the usa
of 100% cotton.
machine wash cold,
tumble dry low.
not for use as pants.

FWIW, Cake started off this morning at 9105. It's now at 9264. If it qualified for the reckoning, it'd be in 2nd place.

jmmbell1987 wrote:
I can see why someone would like "Cheese" beyond its reference, but I also sincerely doubt that Bass designed it with people who aren't familiar with Portal but dig Techno mice in mind.

With "Cake", the parody is as much of "The Treachery of Images" (or at least its genre) as it is of "Portal". It's an absurd little image. "Cheese" (which I don't dislike, for the record), regardless of quality, is a Portal reference and a Portal reference alone.

Regardless of the quality of the shirts, the parody between the two is not equivalent because "Cheese" is barely a parody, while "Cake" is a double parody.

Without direct input from the artists, I can't speak to artist intent on either piece, since it would be presumptuous on my part. If Geekfactor12 or Bass weighed in somewhere on their intent, I'd like to read it. Otherwise, on the surface of it, the intent on both is the same (a shirt about portal)
Parody, tribute, homage, inspiration; all are valid approaches.

Wow, I got an email from Amazon this morning announcing this shirt too! (I preordered Portal 2 from Amazon, so I'm assuming that's the list they're sending to)
I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've seen any Woot promotion directly from Amazon.

Here's the email for those of you who won't get it, it even includes a bit of Mortimer and Monty dialog!

Some of the people you meet may not know you're a Portal fan. Rectify this situation immediately with this Shirt.Woot deal:

The Cake Is A Liar

$15.00 + free shipping

Yes, it's orange, but putting your body into it won't transport you anywhere.

woot! is...
a site, or rather a collection of sites, in the Amazon family that focuses on selling one absurdly great deal, every day, and encouraging (almost) unfiltered community discussion about that absurdity.


[Monty:] Are you still wearing that sailor suit, Mortimer?

[Mortimer:] Yeah! It went over so well at the midnight Porthole 2 release that I've worked it into my daily rotation.

[Monty:] You... you didn't actually go to that, did you?

[Mortimer:] Did too! I never made it inside, though. People loved my cosplaying so much, they wanted me to dance jigs for pennies. I made 58 cents!

[Monty:] I can't even laugh at that.

[Mortimer:] Some guy even got out an old crank organ that he kept in his car. Porthole 2 fans are so cool.

goldenthorn wrote:So what you're saying is that I have to wear my shirt inside out and backwards and harkening (I verb how I wanna verb!) everyone's attention to the tag?

CAN DO.

Oh, but then how are folks going to know you're actually wearing Cake, when it could very well be that you're wearing Ghosties or Trick or Terror but didn't want to look weird(er than usual) during the non-Halloween days of the year? Or Kitty Gratis, and you don't want folks to stalk you at the number listed?

See. Now you created yourself a dilemma.

We could make you a button that said "Original Print".

Or maybe "First run FTW".

Or "Yes, I knew this was cool the first time"

Or simply "Reprints are a lie"

goldenthorn wrote:*cringes* I shouldn't admit this, but even though this reselling is great for woot and fantastic for MJ... I kinda really liked having my Cake Is a Liar shirts being so rare and unpurchaseable. Now how am I supposed to distinguish my "first run" shirt from this come-lately reprint, huh? Emphatic scribbles on the side of the shirt in sharpie ink? Loud "random" comments in anyone's hearing about how "I love my original print of the tshirt that I am wearing right now that is awesome and original and I knew about it forever ago because it's ORIGINAL?" Maybe stickers? Never washing it again to maximize vintage-ness? Hmm, up-and-down glares of disdain at anyone I encounter wearing a too-new-and-clean-looking version?
Ooooh, I feel like such a filthy hipster. *flings arms out all martyr-style* CASTIGATE ME AND CLEANSE MY SHIRT-SOUL WITH YOUR SCORN.

Just wear it ironically...sheesh.