0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: On April 1st, each year, people from all over the world keep their eyes peeled for anything unusual or a miss. 0:07 [SPEAKER_00]: Everything is suddenly treated with suspicion, from social media posts published by a popular fast food chain to that questionable looking Facebook announcement from the local police department. 0:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Why? 0:18 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, because it's April Fool's Day, a worldwide celebration where you're either pranking someone or being pranked upon, 0:28 [SPEAKER_00]: no one knows exactly how this unofficial holiday came to be. 0:31 [SPEAKER_00]: However, it has enjoyed a long and colorful history. 0:36 [SPEAKER_00]: One peppered with extraordinary feats, ridiculous ideas, and of course, outrageously hilarious pranks. 0:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Without a doubt, Swiss spaghetti harvest is one of the more infamous ones, thanks in part to the fact that it was successfully pulled off by a major news outlet. 0:55 [SPEAKER_00]: Whose reputation was that of a trustworthy and serious platform that relayed only dry facts to the public. 1:02 [SPEAKER_00]: On the 1st of April in 1957, the BBC a news outlet based in London, aired a very curious segment on their current affairs program, 1:14 [SPEAKER_00]: The three-minute black and white video showed a group of people picking noodles, off trees, as a voiceover narrates how the Swiss region of Tachina was enjoying a fruitful harvest of spaghetti that year, according to their narrator. 1:29 [SPEAKER_00]: quote, the last two weeks of March are an inches time for the spaghetti farmer, while not entirely ruining the crop, it generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices and world markets, but now these dangers are over, and the spaghetti harvest goes forward, in quote, 1:54 [SPEAKER_00]: He goes on to describe how the village was seen and exceptionally heavy crop of spaghetti that year. 2:00 [SPEAKER_00]: All while accompanied by scenes showing people excitedly pulling noodles off tree branches. 2:06 [SPEAKER_00]: The reaction was swift and unexpected. 2:10 [SPEAKER_00]: With an estimated 8 million people across Britain tuning in to watch and disbelief as their European neighbors enjoyed a delicious bowl of pasta without having to boil the noodles. 2:23 [SPEAKER_00]: More than that though, the segment was so believable that the BBC reportedly received hundreds of calls the following day. 2:31 [SPEAKER_00]: From people demanding to know how they could propagate spaghetti trees in their own backyards. 2:39 [SPEAKER_00]: Funny enough, the BBC didn't confess to the prank immediately. 2:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead, they advised callers to plant a piece of spaghetti into a can of tomato sauce, which, as ridiculous as it sounds, was actually followed by many. 2:55 [SPEAKER_00]: The story of the Swiss spaghetti harvest was the brainchild of an Austrian born man named Charles DeJager, who manned the cameras of the Panorama program. 3:06 [SPEAKER_00]: He had been inspired by one of his childhood school teachers, who used to score his class by telling them that they were so stupid, they'd believe it, if someone told them that spaghetti grew on trees. 3:18 [SPEAKER_00]: It took Dejagger considerable effort to convince the rest of the production team. 3:24 [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he was only able to get them to give the green light on the project by promising that it would be done as cheaply as possible. 3:32 [SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately, the program's editor, Michael Peacock, took him up on this guarantee and gave him a measly 100 pounds to shoot the segment. 3:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Undeterred, the Jagger booked a hotel on the shores of Lake Nugano. 3:47 [SPEAKER_00]: A breathtaking tourist spot situated between Switzerland and Italy, armed with 20 pounds of Uncooked Spaghetti and several pieces of the Swiss National Costa. 3:59 [SPEAKER_00]: He set out to film what would eventually become the world's best April Fool's Day 4:05 [SPEAKER_00]: At the time though, the public's reaction to the hopes was mixed, once the spaghetti harvest was revealed to be nothing more than a joke, many criticized the BBC for airing it at the end of a very serious news program. 4:20 [SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, the BBC's executives, including then director general, Sir Ian Jacob. 4:27 [SPEAKER_00]: praised to Jagger's imagination and his willingness to take it to the next level. 4:33 [SPEAKER_00]: To this day, the outlet continues to stand by its prank. 4:37 [SPEAKER_00]: In 2004, the man who wrote the infamous narration, David Wheeler, told the BBC, that quote, I think it was a good idea for people to be aware they couldn't believe everything they saw on television, and that they ought to adopt a slightly critical attitude to it, in quote. 4:55 [SPEAKER_00]: However, the BBC wasn't the first news outlet that forced people to question the authenticity of what they were reading and seeing. 5:03 [SPEAKER_00]: A four or five decades before the Swiss spaghetti harvest made headlines, nearly the entire European continent, was sent into a spiral when news broke out that the United States Federal Treasury had been robbed. 5:18 [SPEAKER_00]: In 1905, the German newspaper, Bellina Tagabla, ran a story that detailed how nefarious thieves had managed to dig a tunnel underneath the federal treasury, stealing all of America's gold and silver reserves. 5:33 [SPEAKER_00]: They further claimed that it had been organized by the country's Robert Barrens, who had worked on the tunnel for over three years. 5:42 [SPEAKER_00]: Even though it sounded far-fetched, the news spread rapidly across Europe, with countless newspapers and media publications running the story, too. 5:53 [SPEAKER_00]: One even accompanied their article with a detailed illustration that showed how the tunnel was situated beneath Potomac River, which allowed the thieves to transport all their loot on small submarines and ships that were waiting for them at sea. 6:08 [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't take long for the report to be revealed as a hoax, though. 6:12 [SPEAKER_00]: The Baleena Tiger Blood, proud of its success, credited the prank to a journalist named Lewis Beerick, who had been working for them as their New York correspondent, and had used a pseudonym to publish the original article. 6:26 [SPEAKER_00]: Many Europeans were left feeling mortified, for having fallen for the outlander story. 6:32 [SPEAKER_00]: And this was exacerbated by the American counterparts who were amazed at how goalable they had been. 6:39 [SPEAKER_00]: To quote the museum of hoaxes in San Diego, California, the Americans noted that the hoax had doubtless succeeded so well because it played upon the somewhat fanciful image of America held in the minds of many Europeans. 6:54 [SPEAKER_00]: Namely, that America was a kind of wild west ruled by outlaw millionaires, where it was possible that such a breeze and robbery might take place. 7:05 [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, But Americans prove themselves to be just as gullible as Europeans. 7:11 [SPEAKER_00]: When in 1992, millions of them were fooled into believing that Richard Nixon had once again joined the presidential race. 7:21 [SPEAKER_00]: On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon became the only United States president to step down from office. 7:29 [SPEAKER_00]: His resignation had come in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which saw articles of impeachment being approved against him for a slew of charges, including obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. 7:45 [SPEAKER_00]: Because of this, Americans all over the country were surprised and even angered when it was announced that the much disgraced former leader of the free world would be attempting a return to the White House. 7:59 [SPEAKER_00]: They were even more aggravated when the talk of the nation program by the National Public Radio announced that Nixon's new campaign slogan was 8:13 [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, this was accompanied by audio clips of Nixon himself announcing his campaign, which spurred hundreds of infuriated listeners to call the radio station in protest. 8:25 [SPEAKER_00]: The outrage proved to be too much, and the show was forced to admit that it was nothing more than an April Fool's Day prank. 8:34 [SPEAKER_00]: It also came to the light that the audio clips had been recorded by Rich Little, the comedian who had gained notoriety at the time, for his uncanny impressions of Rich O'Nixon. 8:46 [SPEAKER_00]: A before it was unveiled to be a hoax, politicians and experts were said to have already weighed in. 8:53 [SPEAKER_00]: After the announcement, a professor at Harvard University named Lawrence Tribe, along with Howard Feynman. 8:59 [SPEAKER_00]: A well-known reporter for Newsweek came on air to offer their two cents on how Nixon would affect the 1992 presidential race. 9:10 [SPEAKER_00]: The program even played an audio clip of Tory Clark, then press secretary of the Bush Quail ticket in which she was heard saying, that, quote, we are stunned and think it's 9:23 [SPEAKER_00]: to upstage our foreign policy announcement today. 9:26 [SPEAKER_00]: In quote, these soundbites lent credibility to the prank, which is why the anger from the American public was completely understandable. 9:36 [SPEAKER_00]: These three are just some of the most infamous pranks to have been carried out in celebration of April Fool's Day. 9:43 [SPEAKER_00]: However, history is littered with many more of them. 9:47 [SPEAKER_00]: From a rhinoceros being elected as a member of the City Council in Brazil, to an extra terrestrial UFO being spotted just outside of London, April Fool's Day may not be recognized as an official holiday, but the way it has been celebrated throughout the years is a testament to our unique sense of humor. 10:07 [SPEAKER_00]: as well as to human imagination, goodness, and ingenuity. 10:12 [SPEAKER_00]: After all, it takes a certain amount of skill to convince thousands of people that spaghetti grows on trees or that a disgraced former politician would have this sheer audacity to once again run for the nation's highest office.
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