A collection of memes that matter to API Design

I’ve collected a number of API-related memes over the years—not a huge collection, but fun nonetheless. I’ll add new memes here when I find new noteworthy ones… suggestions welcome. Enjoy!

Not really a meme, but for a while one of the API related Slack channels I subscribe to had a bot that would post this anytime anyone mentioned “Swagger” in a message:

alt text

Sorry, no attribution on the following:

Magnum, api

Also no attribution.

Someone mentions "Swagger" and Batman slaps hi, saying "It's been OpenAPI since 20Bloody16"

No attribution

When banks talk to Fintechs: FinTech: "You can build on our Developer Platform". Bank: "There are well documented APIs, Right?". Fintech: silence. Banks: "There are APIs, right?"

No attribution:

aBuzz Lightyear to Woody: "YAML... YAML EVERYWHERE"

Arnaud Lauret, The API Handyman, created this meme, inspired from Batman Begins:

You've sacrificed your developer footing for an MVP

The author created this meme based on the “Keep Calm and….” theme and the old Twitter 420 HTTP response code for “Enhance Your Calm” (later replaced with the official 429 “Too Many Requests”)

420 Enhance Your Calm

First seen in Arnaud Lauret’s blog:

All your API are belong to us

From Matthew Reinbold’s Net API Notes newsletter:

API Program Ambition / API program Budget

No attribution

Villain: "But it's not RESTFUL if you...". Batman slaps him, "ENOUGH!"

Tweet from Kin Lane, the API Evangelist:

API Last makes Kin Lane sad, API First makes Kin happy

No attribution:

"What do we say to Code First API Design?" "406 Not Acceptable"

Another “API First” meme (no attribution):

"I'm going to use OpenAPI". "And do API First, right?". Silence. "API First, right?"

No attribution

Excited dog, "Did someone say APIs?"

Another meme by the author, commenting on those who claim to participate in API design reviews:

I Don't always review my API first, but when I do, I don't review my API

Here are a few memes related to my article, Your API Has a Problem: Deal With It, specifically the anti-pattern of an API returning a 200 OK response when there was really a problem hidden inside:

From @tompahoward:

Returns an error, 200 OK

No attribution:

HTTP Status 200: {"ERROR": TRUE}, woman sobbing

From Matthew Reinbold’s Net API Notes newsletter:

Woman's brain mention a 200 OK status and "success": false, woman can't sleep

From CommitStrip.com:

Engineer claims to implement API error handling with message, but uses 200 OK HTTP status code

Finally, If I were to pick one meme as my API Design Matters theme meme, it would be this one:

Boromir (from Lord of the Rings): "One does not simply create a REST API"

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Note: This article was originally published on the auhor’s API Design Matters Substack.