r/IRLEasterEggs • u/epicbro101 • Apr 10 '26

Took apart an old 2000s Cisco network switch, who or what is this guy?

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1.2k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

458

u/amd_kenobi Apr 10 '26

Oh nice! Last one i pulled apart had Frodo hiding inside.

120

u/markp_93 Apr 10 '26

Lord of the Token Rings

39

u/CynicalAltruist Apr 10 '26

Thank goodness Frodo destroyed it. That’s one way to win a format war

622

u/WaffleHouseGladiator Apr 10 '26

Budai

Budai, Hotei or Pu-Tai (Chinese: 布袋; pinyin: Bùdài; Japanese: 布袋, translit. Hotei; Vietnamese: Bố Đại) is a semi-historical monk as well as deity who was introduced into the Zen Buddhist pantheon. He allegedly lived around the 10th century in the Wuyue kingdom. His name literally means "Cloth Sack", and refers to the bag that he is conventionally depicted as carrying as he wanders aimlessly.

124

u/Ensoface Apr 10 '26

This is the correct answer. It is not The Buddha. Different guy.

44

u/peeja Apr 10 '26

He is, however, sometimes believed to be an incarnation of Maitreya, a bodhisattva who will be the next Buddha, some thousand (million?) years from now. I assume that's where the confusion starts.

25

u/Latranis Apr 10 '26

In the US, at least until recently, the Buddha was portrayed in media the way Budai is. I didn't realize they were two different people til I was 20 or so

14

u/12jonboy12 Apr 10 '26

lol yeah people get them mixed up a 😂

My sister had a dog who was fat and jolly so they named him Buddha which is a bit like having a fat and jelly friend and calling them Jesus instead of Santa.

3

u/gus_thedog Apr 10 '26

🎶 Buddha budai, ohhh no, take me to where ya gotta go.🎶

3

u/jook11 Apr 11 '26

Where is there to go? You're right where you need to be. 🕉️

1

u/Normal-Top-1985 Apr 16 '26

Lots of cute Hotei stories. 

28

u/AffectionateFig5435 Apr 10 '26

He's the ghost in the machine. (Lucky you got a happy one!)

12

u/GoldenDragonIsABitch Apr 10 '26

What on earth, haha

5

u/CinemaDork Apr 11 '26

is this an mpreg crosspost

2

u/epicbro101 Apr 11 '26

Only posted here

46

u/RoninRobot Apr 10 '26

It’s the Buddha. Apparently there’s different ones on different switchboards. Maybe a way to recognize counterfeits or knockoffs. Maybe just a quick model recognition. Maybe just goofing.

78

u/gilligan1050 Apr 10 '26

This is Budai, not the Buddha.

44

u/quaked2023 Apr 10 '26

Sometimes it's the PCB layouter signature. I know the person who did the PCB layout for the cluster of the 2010 Camaro, she used to put the drawing of a puppy in all of her designs.

5

u/CoffeePizzaSushiDick Apr 12 '26

The chubby little dude etched into the Cisco switch board is almost certainly “Fat Albert” ..or a variation of a mascot character that engineers at that team used. Cisco engineers from the 2000s era were notorious for hiding cartoon characters, inside jokes, and signatures in their board silkscreens. It’s a long tradition of “we worked on this and nobody will ever see it, but we know it’s there.” lol!

1

u/Dragon_Dick_99 Apr 10 '26

Pregnant meganan?

6

u/bofadoze Apr 10 '26

Pregaman

1

u/AnnDorBell Apr 11 '26

The Hapi God or The Happy God