NEWSCASTER0:

On April 1,1957,, the British Broadcasting Corporation, better known as the BBC, broadcast a program about a bumper spaghetti crop in a small village in Switzerland. The program then showed local village women picking strands of spaghetti from the branches of trees. This, of course, was an April Fool's joke. Spaghetti doesn't grow on trees! However, in 1957,, not all that long after the end of World War Two, many people in the UK had little or no experience of what spaghetti was, and were completely fooled by the joke broadcast.

On April 1,1957, the British Broadcasting Corporation, better known as the BBC, broadcast a program about a bumper spaghetti crop in a small village in Switzerland. The program then showed local village women picking strands of spaghetti from the branches of trees. This, of course, was an April Fool's joke. Spaghetti doesn't grow on trees! However, in 1957, not all that long after the end of World War Two, many people in the UK had little or no experience of what spaghetti was, and were completely fooled by the joke broadcast.
NEWSCASTER1:

Husbands and wives argued in their living rooms, angry or confused viewers phoned the BBC to ask them if this was really true, and some, excited by the idea of having their own spaghetti tree, actually called in asking the BBC how to grow one! The rather unhelpful BBC switchboard operator's standard answer was something like .... This was the first televised April Fool's joke, and still one of the best. It worked because the program appeared on the BBC's most serious and respected news program, called Panorama,

Husbands and wives argued in their living rooms, angry or confused viewers phoned the BBC to ask them if this was really true, and some, excited by the idea of having their own spaghetti tree, actually called in asking the BBC how to grow one! The rather unhelpful BBC switchboard operator's standard answer was something like ... This was the first televised April Fool's joke, and still one of the best. It worked because the program appeared on the BBC's most serious and respected news program, called Panorama,
NEWSCASTER2:

and that the presenter, Richard Dimbleby, was well known for his no nonsense style. Also, I guess, because at that time the Brits didn't know much about spaghetti! This was in the days when TV's were black and white and, five years later, in 1962,, a Swedish TV channel used this fact to their advantage in another hilarious April Fool's hoax. The presenter welcomed an esteemed scientist onto the show, who told the viewers that he had discovered how they could turn their black and white televisions into color ones .... Simply by putting a nylon stocking over the screen!

and that the presenter, Richard Dimbleby, was well known for his no nonsense style. Also, I guess, because at that time the Brits didn't know much about spaghetti! This was in the days when TV's were black and white and, five years later, in 1962, a Swedish TV channel used this fact to their advantage in another hilarious April Fool's hoax. The presenter welcomed an esteemed scientist onto the show, who told the viewers that he had discovered how they could turn their black and white televisions into color ones ... Simply by putting a nylon stocking over the screen!
NEWSCASTER3:

This was made more believable by the scientist talking at great length, in complex technical terms, about how the stocking would refract the light beams in such a way that their black and white TV screens would become color! Can you imagine thousands of husbands running to their wives'' stocking drawers and cutting up a pair, to put it over the TV, only to be disappointed! In 1976,, this time on radio in the UK, the English astronomer Patrick Moore played what must be one of the silliest April Fool's jokes. when he told his viewers thatat exactly 947am that day, Pluto, the smallest planet in the solar systemwould move behind the largestJupiter and this would cause a unique gravitational effect wherebyif the viewers jumped in the air at that exact momentthey would feel themselves float up into the airas if they were in zero gravity!

This was made more believable by the scientist talking at great length, in complex technical terms, about how the stocking would refract the light beams in such a way that their black and white TV screens would become color! Can you imagine thousands of husbands running to their wives' stocking drawers and cutting up a pair, to put it over the TV, only to be disappointed! In 1976, this time on radio in the UK, the English astronomer Patrick Moore played what must be one of the silliest April Fool's jokes... when he told his viewers that,at exactly 9:47am that day, Pluto, the smallest planet in the solar system,would move behind the largest,Jupiter and this would cause a unique gravitational effect whereby,if the viewers jumped in the air at that exact moment,they would feel themselves float up into the air,as if they were in zero gravity!
NEWSCASTER4:

Moore presented this so believably, that many people across the UK tried it. One woman even called in later to say that she and her eleven friends had floated up into the air and around the room! It just goes to show, we can convince ourselves of anything, if we're excited enough about it.

Moore presented this so believably, that many people across the UK tried it. One woman even called in later to say that she and her eleven friends had floated up into the air and around the room! It just goes to show, we can convince ourselves of anything, if we're excited enough about it.