The computer graphics industry has a mascot: the Utah Teapot! This little guy really gets around. It's been used as a test object for computer rendering since the 1970's. It gets its name from the University of Utah, where graphics pioneer Martin Newell created it in 1975. Other researchers, most notably Jim Blinn, popularized the teapot. It's a simple but non-trivial 3D model to test rendering algorithms.

The Utah Teapot has become an inside joke in the industry. You'll find it as a Standard Primitive object in 3ds Max. It has made many other appearances over the years, such as in the movie Toy Story, and in Blur Studio's opening animation for the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater in 2001.