The BBC’s April Fools Spaghetti-tree Hoax
Chances are pretty high you know exactly where spaghetti comes from but back in the early 1950s, when its popularity was exploding, a lot of people in the United Kingdom didn’t know how it was made.
So when Aprils 1st, 1957 rolled around, some at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) decided to take advantage of the ignorance for some laughs by airing a news segment that claimed spaghetti grew on trees.
The Spaghetti Trees of Switzerland
In 1953 the BBC premiered Panorama, a television current affairs program that focused on investigative journalism and it quickly became a popular show. In fact, the show was so influential it’s still around today but I suspect new episodes today elicit a “wait, this show is still on?” kind of response. It’s what I like to call The Simpsons effect.
“The Simpsons are forever!” Feels more like a threat
By 1957 Panorama was now hosted and narrated by the BBC’s former war correspondent and their leading news commentator Richard Dimbleby. According to several articles, I could find, he was so revered by the public, they would believe anything that came out of his mouth. This gave Panorama cameraman and jokester Charles de Jaeger an idea.
You read the title of this article and this section of the page so you already know what his idea was. To accomplish this Charles first got the show’s writer David Wheeler involved and together they pitched the idea to the editor of Panorama. The two were given a budget of 100 euros which is equivalent to 2300 euros in today’s money or 2500 bald eagle dollars to us Americans.
Charles traveled to a hotel in Lake Lugano in Italy and found the perfect location to hang 20 pounds of spaghetti off of nearby trees. He then hired several local women- I promise this sentence is innocent- to first hang the spaghetti and, once the camera was rolling, to “pick” the spaghetti and place them in wicker baskets.
“Ah yes, the spaghetti Gods were kind to us.”
The footage and script written by David Wheeler were sent back to London where it was edited into a three-minute segment. The final segment looked as inconspicuous as any other segment. Dimbleby narrated the story while soothing music played to a video of women picking spaghetti off trees. The segment aired not just to the surprise of the viewers at home but to most of the BBC staff.
Reactions to the Spaghetti-Tree Hoax
Immediately after Panorama aired the BBC was flooded with phone calls. Some people got the joke especially since Dimbleby ended the night by reminding people it was April 1st but some wholeheartedly believed spaghetti could be grown on trees.
Because of all the calls, the BBC ended the night’s broadcast with one final statement in regard to the spaghetti trees:
The BBC has received a mixed reaction to a spoof documentary broadcast this evening about spaghetti crops in Switzerland… some viewers failed to see the funny side of the broadcast and criticized the BBC for airing the item on what is supposed to be a serious factual program.
Others, however, were so intrigued they wanted to find out where they could purchase their very own spaghetti bush… This is believed to be one of the first times the medium of television has been used to stage an April Fools Day hoax.
Yet people still believed the original broadcasts and they continued to call the BBC asking how they could also grow their own spaghetti trees. Probably because the operators got tired of saying “Nah it was an April Fool joke… fool” they started getting in on the joke and stating "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." So that didn’t help.
“No I’m serious, bury spaghetti and a tomato together and then pray to Chef Boyardee.”
Newspapers the next day either thought it was a great joke or had a spaghetti stick stuck up their ass. Eventually, the joke died down and people went on with their lives. In 2004 David Wheeler was interviewed about his participation and he had no regrets; respect.
The BBC never did play another April Fools joke but the spaghetti-tree hoax is widely considered one of the best pranks ever played and you should always go out on top.
Quick Facts
Spaghetti is made of flour and water
At the time almost all of the spaghetti that was eaten in the UK came from spaghetti in cans
After WWII and with all the food rationing that occurred some considered spaghetti an exotic delicacy
