April Fool

This site features the top one hundred April Fools' Day hoaxes of all time.

Number one is The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest.

BBC

In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.

I remember seeing this film clip replayed on The Jack Paar show, the late night original version of The Tonight Show. This was back in the day when good compelling television was a rare and new experience, and our parents would sometimes rouse my brother and I from sleep abed to come watch.

Reading about The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest made me recall those nights sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the television in my pajamas. Comedians like Jonathan Winters and Zero Mostel were our favorites, but my most vivid memories are of a falling-down drunk Judy Garland, and an obviously drug-stoned-out-of-his-gourd Oscar Levant telling stories that even an eight or ten year-old me could tell were remarkable for making it past the network censors.

Anyway, don't forget to return that call from Mr. Lion.

[Update April 2nd: Fixed "April Fools Day" to "April Fools' Day." Damn.]