Greatest April Fools’ prank of all time? The story of the BBC’s ‘spaghetti trees’

Fox 8 ^ | Apr 1, 2025 | Michael Bartiromo

[Leaning Right]

No mention if the spaghetti was al dente or not. Maybe it depends on the tree. 😀

[Leaning Right]

[nwrep]

Shows the dire depravation of post war Britain.

[4yearlurker]

I actually remember seeing this on TV around 1967 or so. I don't remember what show just that I was thinking: "That's not true!"

[OldHarbor]

A April Fool’s Joke.
A local radio personality said that Mount Trashmore ,( yes that is the name, a former landfill turned park ), had exploded.

Local authorities were not amused.

[Ingtar]

I much preferred the flying penguins.

[lowbridge]

Whaddya mean it’s not true? I saw it on tv ages ago.

The Spaghetti “Harvest” - San Giorgio Spaghetti ad (1978)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q-ZtGoXkI58

[NFHale]

Al Dente…. I remember him… Italian kid, South Philly…. 😁

[Jamestown1630]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEqp0x6ajGE

[gloryblaze]

I started to just shake my head, but then I remembered all the times I’ve seen a thread title here on a story by the “Bee” and bought it at first.

[Alberta's Child]

This was, without a doubt, the best April Fool's prank of all time. Sports fans from the 1980s will know what I'm talking about. LOL.

[verum ago]

My personal favorite is still when some guys helicoptered a bunch of tires into the crate of Mount Edgecumbe (outside Sitka, AK) and set them on fire to make it look like the volcano was waking up...

[FrozenAssets]

Best joke of all time.

[JZelle]

Pitched barefoot and threw a 150 mph fastball.

[Rinnwald]

The Space needle collapsing was pretty good too.

Space Needle Hoax

[gloryblaze]

Single-footedly! I found a great piece about it:

https://www.si.com/sports-illustrated/2020/04/01/sidd-finch-april-fools-article-george-plimpton-lane-stewart-joe-berton

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Some kids did a similar thing with a cinder cone near Amboy, CA back in the 1940s. Many of the townspeople fled.

I knew some people who were thinking about burning a bunch of tires in the crater of Mt. Tabor in SE Portland on April 1, 1980, but they didn’t do it.

[Jamestown1630]

I can see where that one was a real mistake.

[Fiji Hill]

On April 1, 1982, I tuned in to KRLA (the old rock station at 1110 kilocycles, not today’s talk station at 870) and was astounded to learn that it was no longer 1982 but 1963. The program featured news and weather reports, advertisements, and hit songs from April 1, 1963. I was at first taken aback before I realized that it was April 1.

[jjotto]

George Plimpton was a giveaway, but the Mets kept the joke up for a couple weeks for those not familiar with Plimpton.

And then there was the acrostic of:

“He’s a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd’s deciding about yoga...”