5 Ways Developers Hide Easter Eggs in Code

We developers are a mischievous bunch. We spend hours debugging serious logic, but we will happily spend extra hours hiding a secret joke that only 0.1% of users will ever see.

One of the most common ways to do this? ASCII Art in the console.

The “Inspect Element” Surprise

Go to a major tech company’s website. Right-click, hit “Inspect,” and switch to the Console tab. There’s a decent chance you’ll see:

1. A Hiring Message: “Want to build this? We are hiring.” (Classic, practical, boring).
2. A Warning: Facebook famously puts a huge “STOP!” in red text to prevent users from pasting malicious scripts.
3. Art: The best ones just put a giant logo or a mascot.

Why Do We Do It?

It’s a digital handshake.

When you look at the source code or the console, you are signaling that you aren’t a normal user. You’re one of us. You’re a tinkerer.

Finding an ASCII easter egg feels like finding a secret room in a video game. It breaks the fourth wall. It reminds you that a human being built this software, and that human being probably had too much coffee and a weird sense of humor.

How to Add Your Own

It’s easy. In JavaScript:

console.log(`
   /\\_/\\
  ( o.o )
   > ^ <
  Meow.
`);

Just don’t get fired for putting a ASCII cat in your banking app’s production logs.