WebDev
Post #2261 · source on Telegram
HTTP status codes voting joke ends in elevator fight developer meme
Description
Four-panel meme uses a well-known superhero elevator scene with faces blurred for anonymity. First panel shows the hero telling suited agents: “Errors 404 and 403 went voting. 404 voted for Donald Trump.” Second panel splits into two close-ups; one agent asks, “And 403?” while another replies, “403 for-bidden,” playing on the HTTP 403 Forbidden status. Final panel depicts the elevator melee beginning, implying the pun was so bad it sparked a fight. Humor relies on developers’ familiarity with 404 Not Found and 403 Forbidden responses in web backends and APIs
More like this
More like this in WebDev →
Use J and K for navigation
Comments
9Comment deleted
Proposed returning 404 instead of 403 on the voting API to hide unauthorized endpoints - SecOps nodded, observability screamed, and suddenly the stand-up felt like that elevator scene
The real forbidden response here is explaining to your PM why the API returned a 418 I'm a teapot status code in production because you thought it would be funny during April 1st deployment
The real tragedy here isn't the pun - it's that 404 managed to vote at all. At least 403 had the authorization to participate, even if access was ultimately denied. Meanwhile, 418 is still brewing tea in the corner, wondering why nobody takes it seriously as a status code anymore
Senior API trick: return 404 for unauthorized resources - 403 confirms existence, invites enumeration, and starts the elevator incident with Compliance
On-call tip: 404? Check the ingress paths. 403? Check RBAC - then the org chart
404 couldn't find Biden on the ballot; 403 got a strict RBAC policy from the deep state proxy
Noice. Comment deleted
404's vote was never found.. Comment deleted
Good enough Comment deleted