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BBC Viewers Are Astounded By The ‘Spaghetti Tree’ Of Switzerland

The legendary hoax short featured groups of farmers, working in pairs, removing spaghetti noodles from branches, and lying them out in the sun in large baskets to dry. You can watch it here, via the BBC.

Adding believability to the hoax segment was the announcer, Richard Dimbleby. A veteran broadcaster, Dimbleby was the BBC’s first war correspondent and not at all known for silliness. In a perfect deadpan, Dimbleby noted that the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland would be particularly bountiful that year, thanks to the almost complete eradication of the spaghetti tree’s main predator, the “spaghetti weevil.”

“Many people are often puzzled by the fact that spaghetti is produced at such uniform length,” Dimbleby intoned over footage of happy Swiss women pulling strands of pasta from tree branches. “This is the product of many years of patient endeavor by plant breeders who succeed in producing the perfect spaghetti.”

Despite the location of the “farm” — Switzerland, rather than pasta’s native Italy — and the release of the segment on April Fools Day, hundreds of people believed spaghetti trees were real. Even Sir Ian Jacob, the General Director of the BBC at the time, one of the most senior executives, was fooled into believing, even if just for a moment. Jacob reportedly had to research spaghetti in three separate books to confirm that the segment was pulling his leg.

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