|
April Fool jokes are a long tradition, and there is plenty about them on the Net today. I was delighted to read that the all time best is the BBC's Panorama program on April 1, 1957. Panorama broadcast a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. The success of the crop was attributed both to an unusually mild winter and to the “virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil.” The audience heard Richard Dimbleby, the show’s highly respected anchor, discussing the details of the spaghetti crop as they watched video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The segment concluded with the assurance that, “For those who love this dish, there’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti.” I report this because I actually watched it - you have to know that Panorama was a very serious news program(me) run by a very serious BBC. I was old enough to know that spaghetti came in cans (tins) but the shock was huge!
The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest hoax generated an enormous response. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC diplomatically replied, “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
|
|
|
Screenshots Index > Headlines >
Archive |