Spaghetti Trees

     In 1957 Britain a news show decided to play an April Fools joke on their audience.  They aired a short video about the years acceptionally good spaghetti harvest in Switzerland.  The winter was said to be warmer than normal and the plants biggest pest, the spaghetti weevil, was scarce.  Although the video was only about three minutes long it got a lot of attention from the public.  The BBC got hundreds of calls from viewers who wanted to know how to get their own spaghetti tree.  In reply they were told to "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
     This little hoax, by Panorama, has become famous in its own right.  It's probably the first time an April Fools joke was aired on television and remains one of the most famous.  Some television stations across the globe have now followed suit and created hoaxes of their own. 

Here is the original video.

Here is a short documentary by the BBC about the hoax and how it came to be.

      In 1978, a spaghetti company called San Giorgio decided to make a commercial in the style of the hoax.  Unlike the original, however, they announced the fact that spaghetti doesn't actually grow on trees.  I'm guessing they didn't want to have to explain it to hundreds of viewers wanting to grow their own!  I hope you have enjoyed this sprig of history and that you stay curious.

 1978 San Giorgio commercial