Vintage BBC April Fools Day Prank – On April Fools Day in 1957, a BBC news anchor pulled the ultimate prank on viewers and coined the term punk.
Ashton Kutcher might have coined the term, but it was Richard Dimbleby – the notoriously somber BBC news anchor – who pioneered the original “punk.”
On April 1, 1957, during his widely respected news program, “Panorama,” Dimbleby voiced a three-minute segment on “spaghetti harvesting” in Switzerland.
As he championed the practice, viewers watched “real” footage of spaghetti farmers pulling pasta from trees. “There’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti,“ he concluded.
The footage, of course, was fake. But its impact was very real: Hundreds of viewers called the BBC, wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.
The network’s response: “Take a sprig of pasta, place it in tomato sauce, and wait.”
Today, the gag remains one of the greatest corporate stunts of all time, according to the Museum of Hoaxes.
1957 BBC April Fools Day Prank Video
And that’s the video clip of the Vintage BBC April Fools Day Prank.
Tags: april fools day, bbc april fools day prank, punk, richard dimbleby, Video
April 29th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
hehehe def a classic prank!!
September 26th, 2009 at 9:25 am
thanks !! ROTFLMAO!!!
September 27th, 2009 at 7:10 am
I am loving it! Too funny!! Thanks for the laugh!!!