On April 1 in 1957: BBC fools the nation. (video)

BBC Archives ^ | April 1 1957 | Staff / Archive

[golux]

The BBC has received a mixed reaction to a spoof documentary broadcast this evening about spaghetti crops in Switzerland.

The hoax Panorama programme, narrated by distinguished broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, featured a family from Ticino in Switzerland carrying out their annual spaghetti harvest.

It showed women carefully plucking strands of spaghetti from a tree and laying them in the sun to dry.

But some viewers failed to see the funny side of the broadcast and criticised the BBC for airing the item on what is supposed to be a serious factual programme.

Others, however, were so intrigued they wanted to find out where they could purchase their very own spaghetti bush.

[golux]

A delightful hoax, worth remembering. April 1 was an important holiday in my circles, and pranks in general - on a large scale - were a constant preoccupation.

For us, a proper hoax (or campaign) had to be elegant, mysterious, and have a political angle.

Here is another copy of the BBC video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ugSKW4-QQ

[RegulatorCountry]

Reminds me of the disastrous failure of the marshmallow crop in North Carolina, too much rain, ptooey, makes ‘em bitter and mushy.

[golux]

Too much rain! That’s hilarious! Everybody knows marshmallows are harvested underwater.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Here’s the real story about the uproar over a famous prank that wasn’t;

http://www.cracked.com/article_18487_6-ridiculous-history-myths-you-probably-think-are-true_p2.html

[leapfrog0202]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing.

[Vanders9]

One of the all time classics.

[Rebelbase]

Marshmallow crop failure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzzY—9kmI8

[Mister Da]

Years ago, I had a date nearly in tears by convincing her pizza parlors slaughtered baby pepperonis to make pepperoni pizza.

[mware]

My favorite was the flying penquins. I show it to my students every year on April 1st (7th grade Life Science).A few of them get it but the fellow looks so much like David Attenboure (sp) that most of the kids are fooled.

[ABN 505]

I had my kids convinced that Naugahide leather chairs were made from the skins of baby Nauga’s and they were all raised in Naugatuck Connecticut the Naugahide capitol of the world.

[Mister Da]

You have to be some kind of monster to kill & skin baby Naugas! Skinning knife bans are desperately needed in CT to stop the slaughter.

Given there are few conservatives in CT - none allowed to own knives, this must be an ongoing liberal atrocity. Are they not aware that most Naugas are Gay?

Where is PETA & the Westboro bunch when you need them? They should throw their naked bodies in front of the delivery trucks at the skinneries.

[a fool in paradise]

The BBC has received a mixed reaction to a spoof documentary broadcast this evening about spaghetti crops in Switzerland the dangerous threat of Man-Made Global Climate Change.

[katana]

I liked the special they did on Halloween night, may have been in 1994, where they sent a team out to an ostensibly haunted house. Kept it very light but serious with all the usual Beeb trappings.

And then weird s*** started happening at the haunting site, reports of similar happenings around Britain, and finally klieg lights started popping at the main BBC News set. They all played it completely straight and, a'la Orson Welles' War of the Worlds stunt, it scared the crap out of a lot of people watching.

[Hulka]

BBC is good at pranks. . .this is the best in my opinion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9dfWzp7rYR4
Stunningly beautiful. . .and huge amounts of Brits fell for it.

[golux]

Oh man, that is good.
Here’s a personal “favorite.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Harvard%E2%80%93Yale_prank

[JoeProBono]

[zeugma]

bfl