“She laughed and he also laughed it away
He said don’t take it seriously, it is April fools day!
Then again if you make an honest try
Lips may be silent but the eyes do not lie!”
A news report appeared this day in 1957, and presented a family in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland gathering a bumper spaghetti harvest after a mild winter and “virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil”.
Footage of a traditional “Harvest Festival” was aired along with a discussion of the breeding necessary to develop a strain to produce the perfect length of spaghetti.
The editor of Panorama, Michael Peacock, told the BBC in 2014 how he gave de Jaeger a budget of £100 and sent him off. The report was made through its voice-over by respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby.
At the time, 7 million of the 15.8 million homes (about 44%) in Britain had television receivers. Pasta was not an everyday food in 1950s Britain, and it was known mainly from tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce and considered by many to be an exotic delicacy.
An estimated eight million people watched the programme on 1 April 1957, and hundreds phoned in the following day to question the authenticity of the story or ask for more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees; the BBC told them to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best!
Did you understand what was going on?!
So growing Spaghetti on trees did not set you off!
In the days before net and the famous WhatsApp university! This was how false news was spread!
This prank is said to be one of the biggest April Fool’s joke ever!
Panorama cameraman Charles de Jaeger dreamed up the story after remembering how teachers at his school in Austria teased his classmates for being so stupid that if they were told that spaghetti grew on trees, they would believe it! It did happen and how!
With sufficient amount of time and money it goes to show that you can prove anything you want! Even if it is for one day! Now although is my birthday on the first of April, it is better to have a proper celebrity sketch! Utpal dutt with his mischievous smile and comic timing fits the bill perfectly!
Now do not try to think of some elaborate hoax to pull up on the first!
Money does not grow on trees! (wink wink!)
Suprabhatam!
Have a great day!
ramadocblog 