Humorous RFCs

I knew there was something funny going on with all those RFC protocols!

The Internet RFCs aren’t all engineering technicalities. Some of them are meant to convey a message or commentary with a humorous tone. Here are some ‘classic’ examples:

  • RFC 527: ARPAWOCKY
  • RFC 748: Telnet Randomly-lose option
  • RFC 968: ‘Twas The Night Before Startup
  • RFC 1097: Telnet subliminal-message option
  • RFC 1121: Act one: the poems
  • RFC 1149: A standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers
  • RFC 1216: Gigabit Network Economics and Paradigm Shifts
  • RFC 1217: Memo from the Consortium for Slow Commotion Research (CSCR)
  • RFC 1300: Remembrance of Things Past
  • RFC 1313: Today’s Programming for KRFC AM 1313 Internet Talk Radio
  • RFC 1437: The Extension of MIME Content-Types to a New Medium
  • RFC 1438: IETF Statements of Boredom
  • RFC 1605: SONET to Sonnet translation
  • RFC 1606: A Historical Perspective On The Usage Of IP Version 9
  • RFC 1607: A View from the 21st Century
  • RFC 1776: The Address is the Message
  • RFC 1882: The 12 days of technology before Christmas
  • RFC 1924: A compact representation of IPv6 addresses
  • RFC 1925: The 12 networking truths
  • RFC 1926: An experimental encapsulation of IP Datagrams on top of ATM
  • RFC 1927: Suggested additional MIME types for associating documents