--- title: The Internet's Longest-Running Joke: A Field Guide to... description: A tour of the IETF's nearly 50-year tradition of publishing humorous April Fools' RFCs — official, numbered internet standards documents written as satire.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-internet-s-longest-running-joke-a-field-guide-to-the-april-fools-rfcs-tyujausu1 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Internet's Longest-Running Joke: A Field Guide to the April Fools RFCs | daily.dev og:description: A tour of the IETF's nearly 50-year tradition of publishing humorous April Fools' RFCs — official, numbered internet standards documents written as satire.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-internet-s-longest-running-joke-a-field-guide-to-the-april-fools-rfcs-tyujausu1 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/TyUJausU1.png og:image:alt: The Internet's Longest-Running Joke: A Field Guide to the April Fools RFCs og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Internet's Longest-Running Joke: A Field Guide to the April Fools RFCs **[freeCodeCamp](https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp)** · 16 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A tour of the IETF's nearly 50-year tradition of publishing humorous April Fools' RFCs — official, numbered internet standards documents written as satire. Highlights include RFC 1149 (IP over homing pigeons, which was actually implemented in Norway with 55% packet loss), RFC 3514 (the "evil bit" for IPv4 headers), RFC 2324 (the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol and the beloved HTTP 418 status code), and recent entries like RFC 9564 (AI-powered faster-than-light networking) and RFC 9949 (TLS keys derived from a 1990 rap song). The best joke RFCs are technically rigorous and written in the same deadpan format as real standards, making them a surprisingly effective way to learn networking concepts. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [What Are RFCs? The Forgotten Blueprints of the Internet](https://daily.dev/posts/what-are-rfcs-the-forgotten-blueprints-of-the-internet-hrolmhned) · Hacker News · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [RFC 8890 – The Internet is for End Users \(2020\)](https://daily.dev/posts/rfc-8890-the-internet-is-for-end-users-2020--qswg1dqac) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [China's so-called "IPv9" has a long, complicated history](https://daily.dev/posts/china-s-so-called-ipv9-has-a-long-complicated-history-49z8y9h3e) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [IPv8 looked like a real plan to fix the internet, but it was one man, an AI chatbot, and a GoFundMe page](https://daily.dev/posts/ipv8-looked-like-a-real-plan-to-fix-the-internet-but-it-was-one-man-an-ai-chatbot-and-a-gofundme--miefyexin) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-internet-s-longest-running-joke-a-field-guide-to-the-april-fools-rfcs-tyujausu1) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Internet's Longest-Running Joke: A Field Guide to the April Fools RFCs","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-internet-s-longest-running-joke-a-field-guide-to-the-april-fools-rfcs-tyujausu1","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-internet-s-longest-running-joke-a-field-guide-to-the-april-fools-rfcs-tyujausu1"},"datePublished":"2026-07-28T18:04:59.031Z","dateModified":"2026-07-28T18:38:46.473Z","description":"A tour of the IETF's nearly 50-year tradition of publishing humorous April Fools' RFCs — official, numbered internet standards documents written as satire....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1069faa791a9e5c209effeb403fd3f58?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/1069faa791a9e5c209effeb403fd3f58?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"freeCodeCamp","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"freeCodeCamp","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1628412854/logos/freecodecamp","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-internet-s-longest-running-joke-a-field-guide-to-the-april-fools-rfcs-tyujausu1","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"networking","timeRequired":"PT16M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"freeCodeCamp","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/freecodecamp"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Internet's Longest-Running Joke: A Field Guide to the April Fools RFCs"}]} ```