[7] The Version 5 Unix manual describes a /dev/null device with modern semantics.
This entity is a common inspiration for technical jargon expressions and metaphors by Unix programmers, e.g. "please send complaints to /dev/null", "my mail got archived in /dev/null", and "redirect to /dev/null"—being jocular ways of saying, respectively: "don't bother sending complaints", "my mail was deleted", and "go away".
[10] In 1996, Dev Null was an animated virtual reality character created by Leo Laporte for MSNBC's computer and technology TV series The Site.
"[11] The null device is also a favorite subject of technical jokes,[12] such as warning users that the system's /dev/null is already 98% full.
The 1995 April Fool's issue of the German magazine c't reported on an enhanced /dev/null chip that would efficiently dispose of the incoming data by converting it to a flicker on an internal glowing LED.