Posted on 04/01/2023 7:53:25 AM PDT by Leaning Right
On April Fools’ Day 1957, BBC viewers watched a program about a "spaghetti tree" in Switzerland, and many were so convinced it was real that they wanted to grow their own.
*snip*
Adding believability to the hoax segment was the announcer, Richard Dimbleby. A veteran broadcaster, Dimbleby was the BBC’s first war correspondent and not at all known for silliness. In a perfect deadpan, Dimbleby noted that the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland would be particularly bountiful that year, thanks to the almost complete eradication of the spaghetti tree’s main predator, the “spaghetti weevil.”
(Excerpt) Read more at allthatsinteresting.com ...
No way would that hoax have fooled me!
I have enough sense to know that spaghetti trees are found in Italy, not Switzerland.
We grow spaghetti squash but the frozen veggies I have planted never come up. Maybe I need soil tests?
In 2023 selling Spaghetti tree starter kits online could bring in huge revenue
The bird seed I plant doesn’t work either.
There’s a vegetable seed store that sells a pizza kit. It includes the seeds needed for the various vegetables in the toppings and sauce. :) Kind of clever. Whenever I see it, I’m reminded of the spaghetti trees video.
Of course. Just like pasta shells come from the Italian beaches and penne comes from heaven, there’s even a song about that. You don’t want to know where they get elbows.
We have come a long way from 1962 when a group of animal rights crazies demanded of Caroline Kennedy....”CAROLINE! PLEASE CLOTHE YOUR HORSE!” “MR PRESIDENT! PLEASE CLOTHE CAROLINE’S HORSE!”
Believe it or not, about 35 thousand people signed a petition for her to do that.
Nothing can ever top the BBC’s hoax of pawning off Jimmy Savile as a decent human being.
My favorite BBC April Fools prank was the flying penguins. The best was a David Attenboro look alike narrating it.
Hey, Diana, where can we get seeds for this?????
🤣
And vermicelli pupates to become farfale.
Ironically, the spaghetti tree story happened about the same time Jean Shepherd pulled the, "I, Libertine," hoax...another epic story.
It looks as if there were also plenty of stupid people back then.
Haha
These pranks are practically verboten in our humorless, overly-sensitive, easily offended society.
One of the really good pranks I remember was in 1980, which was just after Mount St Helens started erupting. A Boston TV station reported on an eruption at Great Blue Hill, which is a dinky 600 foot hill outside of Boston in Milton, visible from Route 128. I think some radio stations picked up on it too.
The concept of this little hill erupting was so ridiculous that the biggest danger was probably motorists driving off the road while convulsed in laughter. But some dopey people took it serious and started fleeing their homes.
Naturally, people at the station got fired as a result.
I have a plant called a money tree. Got it as a gag gift, but it’s kinda pretty.
https://www.hgtv.com/outdoors/flowers-and-plants/how-to-grow-and-care-for-a-money-tree-plant
I remember seeing this and I believed it. I was 4.
The Sidd Finch hoax may have been the best ever. Wasn’t the dude supposed to be a Hindu or Buddhist who pitched with one bare foot and a work boot on the other one? LMAO.
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