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# Weird HTTP codes
- URL: https://blog.joshuarocks.me/http418/
- Published: 2025-11-28T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-28T12:00:00.000Z
- Description: What does code 418 do? How about 451?
- Author: Joshua K.
- Tags: Useless Knowledge, #Import 2026-06-19 17:05

## what is an HTTP code?

The internet is built upon humanities best tool, standard. And a lot of then for that matter. And one of those very important standards are HTTP response codes. If you have ever tried to navigate to a webpage that didn’t exist, you have seen the HTTP code *404 - Not Found*. There are plenty more liked this, used in the background to allow your computer and the website to communicate the status. Examples being *500 - Sever error*, *200 - OK*, and more.

## april fools

So where does this get interesting? Programmers are a humorous bunch, usually laughing at their own jokes. On April 1, 1998, then Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (HTCPCP) was released, a full standard for how a server that is a coffee pot should conduct it self. As part of this (extended in 2014), a response code, `418`, was officially added in an RFC. Code `418` waas the response to be given if a server was a teapot, and therefore could not brew coffee. Obviously, this was all a joke, but since it is a fully legitimate reserved code, some website return this occasionally as a joke.

### other interesting codes

There are some other interesting codes. I find code `451` quite interesting, the code for “restricted for legal reasons”. This code was chosen in name of Ray Bradbury’s Book *Fahrenheit 451* — a book all about government censorship. It is used often today when a website can’t or doesn’t want to serve a particular client because of legal reasons, such as GDPR. Code `402` is also interesting, “payment required”, a code that is largely unused right now (but that might change [soon](https://www.x402.org/?ref=blog.joshuarocks.me)!). There are plenty of more numbers to make codes out of, so who knows, we could get some new codes soon!