A Request for Comments (RFC), in the context of Internet governance, is a type of publication from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Society (ISOC), usually describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.

Almost every April Fools' Day (1 April) since 1989, the Internet RFC Editor has published one or more humorous Request for Comments (RFC) documents, following the June 1973 RFC called ARPAWOCKY, a parody of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". The following list also includes humorousous RFCs published on other dates.

List of April Fools' Day RFCs

1978

1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

• Updated by RFC 7168 in 2014.

1999

• Updates RFC 1149.

• Obsoletes MCMXCIX.

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

• RFC Draft: "IP over Burrito Carriers"

2006

1. An April 1 RFC was not published this year, but an announcement on the IETF list about the appointment of the Sesame Street character Bert as member of the IAB appears to have been the April Fools' Day 2006 stunt.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

1. An April 1 RFC was not published this year.

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

Other humorous RFCs

Submission of April Fools' Day RFCs

The RFC Editor accepts submission of properly formatted April Fools' Day RFCs from the general public, and considers them for publication in the same year if received at least two weeks prior to April 1. This practice of publishing April Fool's Day RFCs is specifically acknowledged in the instructions memo for RFC authors, with a tongue-in-cheek note saying: "Note that in past years the RFC Editor has sometimes published serious documents with April 1 dates. Readers who cannot distinguish satire by reading the text may have a future in marketing."

References

Further reading

• RFC Editor home page – hosts individual RFCs

External links

• – on RFC 3751 and April Fools' Day RFCs in general.