Spaghetti-tree hoax facts for kids
.jpg)
The spaghetti-tree hoax was a funny trick played on TV viewers on April Fools' Day in 1957. It was a three-minute news report shown on the BBC show Panorama. The report pretended to show a family in southern Switzerland picking spaghetti from their "spaghetti tree". Back then, spaghetti was not very common in the UK. Many British people didn't know that spaghetti is actually made from wheat flour and water. After the show, lots of viewers called the BBC asking how they could grow their own spaghetti trees! Years later, the news channel CNN said this was the biggest trick ever played by a well-known news channel.
How the Hoax Was Made
This news report was created as an April Fools' Day joke in 1957. It showed a family in a part of Switzerland called Ticino. They were supposedly gathering a huge spaghetti harvest. The report said this was because of a mild winter and the "spaghetti weevil" bug almost disappearing.
The TV show included clips of a traditional "Harvest Festival." It also talked about how farmers supposedly bred special spaghetti plants. This was to make sure the noodles were the perfect length. Some parts of the video were filmed at a pasta factory in St Albans, England. Other parts were filmed at a hotel in Castagnola, Switzerland.
The Idea Behind the Trick
A cameraman for Panorama named Charles de Jaeger thought up the whole idea. He remembered how teachers at his school in Austria used to tease his classmates. They would say his classmates were so silly that they would believe spaghetti grew on trees.
The boss of Panorama, Michael Peacock, shared the story in 2014. He said he gave de Jaeger about £100 to make the report. This was a good amount of money back then. The report seemed even more real because a very respected TV presenter, Richard Dimbleby, narrated it. Peacock said Dimbleby knew it was a joke but loved the idea and was excited to be part of it.
How People Reacted
In 1957, about 7 million homes in Britain had a television. That was nearly half of all homes! Pasta was not an everyday food in Britain during the 1950s. Most people only knew it as tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce. Many people thought it was a fancy or unusual food.
Around eight million people watched the show on April 1, 1957. The next day, hundreds of people called the BBC. They wanted to know if the story was true or how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
