Today is April 1, April Fools' Day, which means we have to be very careful about what we read and hear. But beyond the occasional joke or deception, there's no doubt that the British operate on another level. We still remember very well the prank by Richard Branson that terrified London with his UFO, however, the title of "best prank" probably belongs to the BBC. What did they do? In 1957, the general-interest program Panorama shared a story about "spaghetti trees" in southern Switzerland, and the "family practice" of harvesting the pasta...
I opened my eyes, grabbed the tablet, looked at some news... and 15 minutes later I realized I had fallen for the first April Fools' Day prank of the day. The people at TechPowerUp published an article about the "democratization" of the x86 architecture, when it's more likely that hell freezes over before Intel enables new licenses. In other words, nobody is safe from pranks... but imagine one so elaborate that even the BBC itself took part.
The Spaghetti Trees in Southern Switzerland
The "news" was broadcast by the general-interest program Panorama, in its April 1, 1957 episode. In the canton of Ticino, near the border between Switzerland and Italy, the passing of a particularly mild winter gave rise to an abundant spaghetti harvest. Apparently, the last two weeks of March are "very tense" for spaghetti farmers, as the possibility of a frost could alter the flavor and the final price, but none of that happened. The story mentioned that the scale of the Italian industry is much larger, and the harvesting in Switzerland has a more family-oriented profile. The virtual disappearance of the "spaghetti weevil" also helped the harvest.
Naturally, the BBC's phones exploded after the broadcast. Spaghetti wasn't such a popular dish in Britain in the late '50s, and it's estimated that eight million people watched that program. How did the prank come about? Panorama cameraman Charles de Jaeger imagined the story after recalling that the teachers at his school in Austria said that some students were so stupid they would believe in a spaghetti tree. Michael Peacock, the editor of Panorama, gave de Jaeger 100 pounds to build that story. As a final touch, the voice-over by Richard Dimbleby, the BBC's first war correspondent and one of the most respected television voices at the time, gave it the perfect touch of authority.
