The BBC pulled off a famous April Fools' Day hoax in 1957 with a documentary about the annual spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. Women were shown harvesting strands of spaghetti from trees and laying them in the sun to dry as the narrator explained that a mild winter and elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil had farmers hoping for a bumper crop. Many viewers called the BBC, wondering where they could purchase a spaghetti tree. "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best," was the network's stock response.
No one takes April Fools' Day as seriously as the Brits. In 1977 The Guardian informed readers in a seven page special about the discovery of a group of islands, San Serriffe. Located in the Indian Ocean and shaped like a semi colon, Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse were ruled by General Pica from the capital Bodoni, the paper stated. Only a handful of readers noticed that all the words were in fact printer's terminology.Two selections from a gallery of April Fools' jokes posted at Spiegel online.
p.s. - can someone tell me, is it just "Spiegel" nowadays? When I was in school, it used to be "Der Spiegel."
I've noticed that, too -- but I think Spiegel is the online version, while the magazine is still Der Spiegel. If you go to the web site, you'll find a Der Spiegel tab right next to the English tab.
ReplyDeleteI see it. Thank you, Fletcher.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing about the spaghetti documentary several times when I was a kid, as my dad had seen it. I think his story confused my little sister, because for years she thought rice was pasta.
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