Spaghetti Harvest

[arbusto_baboso]

A classic April Fool's Day prank, in inimitable British style...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ugSKW4-QQ

[sharp_stick]

1. Still the classic

that all other April Fools media jokes have to try to measure up too. Just brilliant this thing.

[unc70]

2. Jack Parr showed it on US TV

I don't remember what year he showed the harvest video on his talk show, but he introduced it with some discussion about his recent travels or some such. I remember calling other family members to come see the video. I was laughing so much.

Great that it is now easy to show others about it.

[Wickerman]

3. I love that, and don't miss the brillianrt Aussie followup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fACJ22ixzhg

Dan Webb: HSV-7 "Spag-Worm" April Fool news story hoax

[HopeHoops]

4. Now THAT is funny!

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Bear in mind the presenter, Richard Dimbleby, was the British equivalent of Ed Murrow

and back in the last 50s, the serious media just didn't do April Fool's jokes.

[tridim]

6. Sports Illustrated's "Sidd Finch" was my favorite April Fools joke of all time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidd_Finch

Sidd Finch was a fictional baseball player, the subject of the notorious article and April Fools' Day hoax "The Curious Case of Sidd Finch" written by George Plimpton and first published in the April 1, 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated.

The Hoax

Plimpton reported that Hayden "Sidd" (short for Siddhartha) Finch was a rookie baseball pitcher in training with the New York Mets. Finch, who had never played baseball before, was attempting to decide between a sports career and one playing the French horn. What was astonishing about Finch was that he could pitch a fastball at an amazing 168 mph, far above the record of a "mere" 103 mph, with pinpoint accuracy. He also wore only one shoe—a heavy hiker's boot—when pitching.

Finch grew up in an English orphanage and was adopted by an archaeologist who later died in a plane crash in Nepal. After briefly attending Harvard University, he went to Tibet to learn "yogic mastery of mind-body," which was the source of his pitching prowess.

The subhead of the article read: "He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent life-style, Sidd's deciding about yoga — and his future in baseball." The first letters of these words spell out "Happy April Fools Day - ah(a) fib" Despite this clue and the obvious absurdity of the article, many people believed Finch actually existed. The magazine printed a much smaller article in the following April 8 issue announcing Finch's retirement. It then announced it was a hoax on April 15.

The story was accompanied by photographs of Finch, including one featuring a young Lenny Dykstra and another of Finch talking with the Mets' actual pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre. The Mets played along with the hoax, even providing a uniform for Joe Berton, a junior high school art teacher from Oak Park, Illinois, who posed as "Finch" for the photographs (usually with his face averted from the lens).