Baloney is a free daily lie-detection game. Each of ten rounds shows three short statements on one topic — exactly one is a plausible fabrication. You tap the fake before the timer, then every statement is revealed as true or false with a one-line truth, and you earn a shareable Baloney Detector verdict from 'Believes Everything' to 'Baloney Immune'. No account, no sign-up.

How do you play Baloney?

Open the site, read the three statements in each round, and tap the one you think is fabricated before the ~30-second timer runs out. After each round the fake is revealed along with the truth of all three statements, plus what percent of today's players got fooled. You win by smell, not recall — no trivia knowledge required.

Yes. Baloney is completely free and ad-supported, with no account, no sign-up, and nothing to install. A new set of ten rounds is released every day and is the same for everyone that day; your streak is saved in your browser.

Case File #0060

Aug 20, 2026 — 10 rounds, declassified. The fabrication in each is marked; the truth of all three follows. Play today's case →

Round 1 HISTORY
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The Great Wall of China is a single unbroken wall, and it is the one human structure clearly visible from the Moon.
  FALSE — it is many disconnected walls from different dynasties, and it cannot be seen from the Moon with the naked eye.
- ✓ TRUE
  Sections of China's northern border walls were built and rebuilt across many dynasties over roughly two thousand years.
  TRUE — construction stretched from early states through the Ming, not a single building campaign.
- ✓ TRUE
  The best-preserved and most famous stretches of the Great Wall were largely built during the Ming dynasty.
  TRUE — the brick-and-stone Ming walls are what most tourists visit today.
Round 2 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  The platypus is one of the very few mammals that lays eggs instead of giving birth to live young.
  TRUE. Along with echidnas, it is a monotreme — an egg-laying mammal.
- ✓ TRUE
  The male platypus has a venomous spur on each hind leg, a rare feature among mammals.
  TRUE. The spur delivers a painful venom, mostly used in fights with rival males.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  A platypus's bill is a hard beak of solid bone, like a bird's, which it uses to crack open nuts.
  FALSE. The bill is soft, rubbery and leathery, packed with electroreceptors that detect the muscle movements of prey, not a bone nutcracker.
Round 3 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  Not all penguins live in the cold; the Galapagos penguin lives right at the equator.
  TRUE — cool ocean currents let this species survive on tropical equatorial islands.
- ✓ TRUE
  Male emperor penguins incubate the egg balanced on their feet through the Antarctic winter while females go to feed.
  TRUE — fathers fast for weeks in the cold, sheltering the egg under a fold of skin until it hatches.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Penguins have hollow, air-filled bones like other birds, which helps them bob back up to the surface.
  FALSE — penguins have unusually dense, solid bones; that reduces buoyancy and helps them dive rather than bob upward.
Round 4 FOOD
- ✓ TRUE
  Coffee's use as a brewed drink is strongly associated with its early spread through the Arabian Peninsula.
  TRUE. Brewed coffee culture took strong early root in Arabia, spreading through its ports and cities.
- ✓ TRUE
  Coffee 'beans' are actually the seeds found inside the fruit of the coffee plant, often called cherries.
  TRUE. Each coffee 'bean' is a seed from inside a small red fruit, so 'bean' is really a seed.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Espresso is made from a special species of coffee bean that is grown only at high altitudes in Italy.
  FALSE. Espresso is a brewing method using pressurized hot water; it is not a bean, and coffee is not commercially grown in Italy.
Round 5 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  A camel's hump stores fat, not water, and acts as an energy reserve the animal can metabolise.
  TRUE. The hump is fatty tissue; it does not hold a reservoir of water.
- ✓ TRUE
  Camels can close their nostrils and have long eyelashes plus a third eyelid to keep out blowing sand.
  TRUE. These adaptations protect the eyes and airways in desert storms.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Camels store large reserves of water inside their humps, which is how they survive weeks without drinking.
  FALSE. Their water conservation comes from physiology and behaviour, not a hump water tank — the hump is fat.
Round 6 HISTORY
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The pyramids at Giza were originally sheathed in a smooth layer of gold plating that was later stripped away by looters.
  FALSE — the pyramids were cased in polished white limestone, not gold; the casing stones were reused for other buildings.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Great Pyramid of Giza remained the tallest human-made structure on Earth for thousands of years.
  TRUE — it held the record until medieval cathedrals finally rose higher.
- ✓ TRUE
  The Great Pyramid was built as a monumental tomb for the pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty.
  TRUE — it was raised as Khufu's royal tomb during Egypt's Old Kingdom.
Round 7 LANGUAGE
- ✓ TRUE
  'Quarantine' comes from the Italian 'quaranta giorni', meaning 'forty days', the isolation period imposed on arriving ships in Venice.
  TRUE. Venetian authorities held suspect ships forty days before landing, and the count itself named the practice.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  The word 'posh' is an acronym for 'Port Out, Starboard Home', marking the shaded, cooler cabins wealthy passengers booked on voyages to India.
  FALSE. There is no evidence for the 'Port Out Starboard Home' story; 'posh' has no confirmed acronymic origin and the tale was invented later.
- ✓ TRUE
  The word 'robot' entered English from Czech, coined for a 1920 play, from a term relating to forced labour or drudgery.
  TRUE. It comes from Karel Capek's play R.U.R.; the Czech root 'robota' means compulsory labour.
Round 8 SCIENCE
- ✓ TRUE
  Water is one of the few substances that expands when it freezes, which is why ice floats.
  TRUE. Water is densest as a liquid at about 4 degrees Celsius, and ice is less dense than liquid water.
- ✓ TRUE
  Because ice floats, it forms an insulating layer on top of a lake, allowing fish and other life to survive the winter below.
  TRUE. The floating ice layer slows further freezing and keeps the water beneath liquid.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Water is most dense as ice, which is why the coldest layer in a frozen pond sinks to the very bottom.
  FALSE. Water is densest as a liquid at around 4 degrees Celsius; ice is less dense and stays on top.
Round 9 SCIENCE
- ✓ TRUE
  Fiber-optic cables carry data as pulses of light bouncing along thin strands of glass.
  TRUE. Light signals reflect down the glass fiber, carrying huge amounts of data quickly.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Wi-Fi signals are a special kind of sound wave, which is why thick walls can muffle them.
  FALSE. Wi-Fi is radio (electromagnetic) waves, not sound; walls weaken them by absorbing radio energy.
- ✓ TRUE
  Radio signals travel at the speed of light, so a call across the planet carries a tiny but real delay.
  TRUE. Even at light speed, long distances and relays add a small, noticeable lag.
Round 10 ANIMALS
- ✓ TRUE
  A cuttlefish can change its skin colour, pattern and even texture in under a second.
  TRUE. Specialised pigment cells and skin muscles let it shift appearance almost instantly.
- ✓ TRUE
  Inside a cuttlefish is a porous internal shell, the cuttlebone, which helps it control buoyancy and is often given to pet birds.
  TRUE. The gas-and-mineral cuttlebone acts as a buoyancy aid and a calcium supplement for caged birds.
- ✗ FABRICATION
  Cuttlefish are true fish, belonging to the same vertebrate group as sharks and rays.
  FALSE. Despite the name, they are not fish at all — they are cephalopods, marine molluscs related to octopus and squid.

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