Funny RFCs

The five-thousand-odd RFCs (Requests for Comments) are the documents which describe a good deal of the Net's protocols, as they've developed over the past 30 years.

They are usually on dry topics like "Exclusive XML Canonicalization, Version 1.0" (RFC3741) or "Network Time Protocol (NTP) over the OSI Remote Operations Service" (RFC1165).

However, a few humorous RFCs bave been written. Most of them are intentionally humorous (altho a few others make you wonder). Here are links to the intentionally humorous or epigrammatic ones:

RFC5514 IPv6 over Social Networks. E. Vyncke. April 1 2009. (Format: TXT=10127 bytes) (Status: EXPERIMENTAL)
RFC5513 IANA Considerations for Three Letter Acronyms. A. Farrel. April 1 2009. (Format: TXT=13931 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
RFC5242 A Generalized Unified Character Code: Western European and CJK Sections. J. Klensin, H. Alvestrand. April 1 2008. (Format: TXT=31314 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
RFC5241 Naming Rights in IETF Protocols. A. Falk, S. Bradner. April 1 2008. (Format: TXT=25304 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
RFC4824 The Transmission of IP Datagrams over the Semaphore Flag Signaling System (SFSS) J. Hofmueller, Ed., A. Bachmann, Ed., IO. zmoelnig, Ed. April 1 2007.
RFC4042 UTF-9 and UTF-18 Efficient Transformation Formats of Unicode. M. Crispin. 1 April 2005.
RFC4041 Requirements for Morality Sections in Routing Area Drafts. A. Farrel. 1 April 2005.
RFC3751 Omniscience Protocol Requirements. S. Bradner. 1 April 2004.
RFC3514 The Security Flag in the IPv4 Header. S. Bellovin. 1 April 2003.
RFC3252 Binary Lexical Octet Ad-hoc Transport. H. Kennedy. 1 April 2002.
RFC3251 Electricity over IP. B. Rajagopalan. 1 April 2002.
RFC3093 Firewall Enhancement Protocol (FEP). M. Gaynor, S. Bradner. 1 April 2001.
RFC3092 Etymology of "Foo". D. Eastlake 3rd, C. Manros, E. Raymond. 1 April 2001.
RFC3091 Pi Digit Generation Protocol. H. Kennedy. 1 April 2001. (Format: TXT=10375 bytes)
RFC2795 The Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite (IMPS). S. Christey. Apr-01-2000.
RFC2551 The Roman Standards Process -- Revision III. S. Bradner. Apr-01-1999.
RFC2550 Y10K and Beyond. S. Glassman, M. Manasse, J. Mogul. Apr-01-1999.
RFC2549 IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service. D. Waitzman. Apr-01-1999. (Updates RFC1149) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
RFC2325 Definitions of Managed Objects for Drip-Type Heated Beverage Hardware Devices using SMIv2. M. Slavitch. March 1998. (Format: TXT=12726 bytes)
RFC2324 Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP/1.0). L. Masinter. March 1998.
RFC2323 IETF Identification and Security Guidelines. A. Ramos. March 1998.
RFC2322 Management of IP numbers by peg-dhcp. K. van den Hout, A. Koopal, R. van Mook. March 1998. (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
RFC2321 RITA -- The Reliable Internetwork Troubleshooting Agent. A. Bressen. March 1998. (Status: INFORMATIONAL)
RFC2100 I J. Ashworth, "The Naming of Hosts", 04/01/1997.
RFC1927 I C. Rogers, "Suggested Additional MIME Types for Associating Documents", 04/01/1996.
RFC1926 I J. Eriksson, "An Experimental Encapsulation of IP Datagrams on Top of ATM", 04/01/1996.
RFC1925 I R. Callon, "The Twelve Networking Truths", 04/01/1996.
RFC1882 I B. Hancock, "The 12-Days of Technology Before Christmas", 12/26/1995.
RFC1776 I S. Crocker, "The Address is the Message", 04/01/1995.
RFC1607 I V. Cerf, "A VIEW FROM THE 21ST CENTURY", 04/01/1994.
RFC1606 I J. Onions, "A Historical Perspective On The Usage Of IP Version 9", 04/01/1994.
RFC1605 I W. Shakespeare, "SONET to Sonnet Translation", 04/01/1994.
RFC1437 I N. Borenstein, M. Linimon, "The Extension of MIME Content-Types to a New Medium", 04/01/1993.
RFC1313 I C. Partridge, "Today's Programming for KRFC AM 1313 Internet Talk Radio", 04/01/1992.
RFC1216 P. Kunikos, P. Richard, "Gigabit Network Economics and Paradigm Shifts", 03/30/1991.
RFC1217 V. Cerf, "Memo from the Consortium for Slow Commotion Research (CSCR)", 04/01/1991.
RFC1149 D. Waitzman, "A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers", 04/01/1990.
RFC1097 B. Miller, "Telnet subliminal-message option", 04/01/1989.
RFC0968 V. Cerf, "Twas the night before start-up", 12/01/1985.
RFC0748 M. Crispin, "Telnet randomly-lose option", 04/01/1978.
RFC0527 ARPAWOCKY. D.L. Covill. May-01-1973.
RFC0439 PARRY encounters the DOCTOR. V. Cerf. January-21-1972.

Email me if there's any I've left out.

Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org>, 2009-05-28