Pie in the Sky

This one has an exact author and an exact motive. Swedish-American labour organiser Joe Hill wrote the phrase into his 1911 song "The Preacher and the Slave," a parody of the Salvation Army hymn "In the Sweet By-and-By." Hill was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (nicknamed the "Wobblies"), and the song mocked preachers who told hungry, poorly paid workers to stop worrying about their material conditions because they'd get their reward in heaven: "You'll get pie in the sky when you die." The song was printed in the IWW's Little Red Songbook and the phrase quickly outgrew its original, very pointed political target.