April Fool's Day: Google, Spaghetti Trees and Sidd Finch

Summary

Hoax! Podcast – "April Fool's Day: Google, Spaghetti Trees and Sid Finch"

Hosts: Dana Schwartz & Lizzie Logan
Release Date: March 30, 2026
Summary of Episode Theme:
This episode of Hoax! is a deep dive into the oddball, delightful, and occasionally infamous world of April Fool's Day hoaxes. Dana and Lizzie explore why humans are so susceptible to being fooled, the traditions that underpin April Fool's around the globe, and two of the most iconic (and surprisingly wholesome) pranks carried out by media institutions: the BBC's "Spaghetti Tree" and Sports Illustrated's Sidd Finch. Through engaging banter and a lens of nostalgia, the hosts also reflect on changing attitudes toward pranks, how communal jokes create a sense of belonging, and why “fun” hoaxes feel different from the modern, often alienating fakery enabled by AI.

---

1. Setting the Stage: April Fool's Day & Personal Pranks

[02:27 – 05:22]

• Dana and Lizzie open up about their own (mostly mild) experiences with April Fool's pranks.
• Lizzie: “The one time that I, like, did something was … I had, like, a bunch of old teen magazines … and I … covered her [roommate’s] room in the posters.” (03:19)
• Dana: Reminisces about possibly trying the classic cream cheese deodorant prank: “Even if I did it, and I’m not sure if I actually did it or not, it didn’t, like, look good enough to actually work.” (04:06)
• Both hosts admit they don’t love doing pranks personally, especially as adults and especially not when brands do them:
  • Dana: “I don’t find pranks very funny.” (04:46)
  • Lizzie: “Brands, absolutely. It became cringe … maybe like 2005 was the last year they could do it.” (05:10)

---

2. Brand Hoaxes and Google’s April Fools

[05:36 – 07:53]

• Discussion about how companies, especially Google, used to get in on April Fool’s trends.
• Early pranks included fake Google services (“you could Google where your socks are”), but Google stopped in 2020 out of concern for “fake news” and the need for sensitivity during the pandemic.
• Fun fact:
  • Dana: “Do you know that Pokemon Go started as an April Fool's prank?” (06:24)
    • Google Maps did a fake “catch Pokémon” event—eventually inspiring the actual hit game.
  • Gmail was announced on April Fool's Day, leading some to think it was a hoax.

---

3. The Origins of April Fool’s Day across Cultures

[07:54 – 13:24]

• The beginnings of April Fool's remain murky—possibly dating to the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar (~1560s).
  • Those who stuck to the “old” New Year (spring) were deemed “fools” by others.
  • Story of Emperor Constantine and the jester “Kugel” is itself a fabricated anecdote—created as a meta-prank by a BU professor in the 1980s.
    • Lizzie: “If you see that, listener, you know that it's not a very good journalist, because that is a lie.” (09:29)
• European traditions:
  • France: “Poisson d'Avril” (“April Fish”) – taping a paper fish to someone’s back.
  • Scotland: “Hunt the Gowk” – sending kids on a fool’s errand, but only until midday. (10:47)
  • Iceland: “Halaipa” (“Run April”) – tricking crowds with enticing but fake news (e.g., “TVs are only $10 at Best Buy!”).
• Reflection on why these gentle prank days exist so widely:
  • Dana: “Sometimes being funny is like a human need … It’s almost like a proto meme.” (13:05)

---

4. The BBC’s Spaghetti Tree Hoax

[20:13 – 25:57]

• [20:13] Introduction to the legendary 1957 BBC “Spaghetti Harvest” prank:
  • The respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby narrated a “newsreel” showing Swiss families harvesting spaghetti from trees.
  • Dana: “[The anchor] is walking us through the early spaghetti harvest … with specific details about the plant and how it's grown … I find it actually genuinely astonishingly plausible.” (21:14)
  • Context: British audiences in the 1950s rarely saw fresh pasta—canned spaghetti was the norm.
  • After the broadcast, the BBC received calls asking where to acquire spaghetti bushes.
    • Their (gentle) response: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” (23:06)
  • Origin of the idea: Panorama’s cameraman, inspired by a schoolteacher’s taunt, “You’re so dumb, you’d believe that spaghetti grew on trees.”
  • This prank’s legacy endures: Remade for Australia (with new absurdities), featured in commercials, and even repeated by Martha Stewart on her show.

---

5. The Curious Case of Sidd Finch

[26:12 – 37:56]

• [26:12] Sports Illustrated’s 1985 April Fool’s hoax:
  • George Plimpton pens an elaborate piece about mythical Mets pitcher “Sidd Finch,” who throws a baseball at 168 mph, wears only one hiking boot, is a Buddhist, plays French horn, and is indifferent to fame or money.
    • Lizzie: “He can throw a ball 168 miles an hour.” (26:56)
    • Dana: “If you don’t know baseball, that’s not possible.” (27:01)
    • The piece was supported by composite photos, fake interviews, and the cooperation of the Mets organization.
  • Many journalists, fans, and even baseball officials took the bait, believing in the legendary new player.
    • Satirical details (his subhead is an acrostic for “Happy April Fool’s Day”), but the magazine’s reputation lent credibility.
  • The prank had an afterlife:
    • Fans sent letters; Joe Burton (the model for Sid) gained cult status, attended Mets games, and was memorialized in bobbleheads and a 30 for 30 documentary.
    • Dana (reflecting): “It’s like the buoyant spirit of Sid Finch carried them on … to win the World Series.” (35:49-35:57)

---

6. Why “Wholesome Hoaxes” Matter | Pranks, Belonging, and the Problem with AI Fakery

[37:59 – 42:40]

• The episode ends with the hosts comparing traditional, labor-intensive hoaxes to modern, AI-generated fakery.
  • Dana: “News you can use, because this is news that makes you feel good in a world that can be very challenging and difficult … These are stories about people coming together just to have a little bit of fun.” (37:59)
  • Lizzie: “It gives people a sense of, like, an inside joke that everyone can be a part of.” (38:42)
• Modern “AI misinformation” is seen as less communal, less creative, and more about tricking or isolating viewers.
  • Dana: “I find AI misinformation odious … Because I don’t think it’s a joke for everyone. It is to trick you, the viewer.” (39:44)
• The hosts express nostalgia for the days of creative, big-budget journalism—where making an audience laugh and feel connected was the point.

---

7. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On kids and belief:

  • Lizzie: “If you go on Reddit, there’s a few British adults who saw that as a kid, didn’t know what April Fool’s Day was … I was pretty old when I realized that spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees.” (24:45)

• On what makes a good hoax:

  • Dana: “A lot of our hoaxes have dark sides and are manipulations … These ones are just … to have some fun.” (38:15)

• On AI fakes vs. human-crafted pranks:

  • Dana: "There's no artistry. I think I will be on the record as saying I am anti-AI. I think it degrades creativity in human culture." (40:32)

• On shared silliness:

  • Lizzie: "So often I'll see a video that brings me such delight until I realize that it's AI ... The idea that the BBC went through the trouble of pretending that spaghetti grows on trees, I'm like, that's delightful. Because even though it's the same letdown ... someone did that." (39:00-39:44)

---

8. Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:05] | April Fool’s Day and personal prank stories
• [05:36] | Brand/Google pranks
• [07:54] | The origins of April Fool's Day
• [20:13] | The BBC Spaghetti Tree hoax
• [26:12] | The Sid Finch/Sports Illustrated hoax
• [37:59] | Discussion of prank positivity vs. AI fakes, communal benefits, nostalgia
• [42:40] | Call for listener submissions, closing remarks

---

9. Listener Engagement

• The hosts invite listeners to share their own joyful April Fools’ stories for a potential future mailbag segment.
  • Dana: “Please share any, like, good, fun pranks that you were involved in on April Fools? Yes, I would love that.” (42:47)

---

Final Tone:

Warm, witty, thoughtful, and (for once in hoax history) delighted by the power of jokes that unify rather than divide.
Lizzie's sign-off: "Please hoax responsibly." (43:30)

This episode is a celebration—not of duplicity, but of community, creativity, and good, old-fashioned fun.

Transcript

[Lala Kent]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

You know Roald Dahl, he thought up Willy Wonka in the bfg. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, the Secret World of Roald Dahl. I'll tell you that story and much, much more.

[Dana Schwartz]

What?

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

You probably won't believe it either.

[Lizzie Logan]

Was this before he wrote his stories?

[Dana Schwartz]

It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

On paper, the three hosts of the Nick Dickenpole show are geniuses. We can explain how AI works, data centers, but there are certain things that we don't necessarily understand.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

Better version of Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

Yes.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time. I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

But hey, no one's perfect. We're pretty close though. Listen to the Nick D Poll show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Lizzie Logan]

Saturday, May 2, country's biggest stars will

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

be in Austin, Texas at our 2026 iHeart Country Festival presented by Capital One. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell [e-mail] that's Ticketmaster.com Babes.

[Lizzie Logan]

What are you doing?

[Ana Navarro]

What?

[Lizzie Logan]

I'm just mowing the lawn.

[Dana Schwartz]

No, it's blazing hot and dry out here.

[Lizzie Logan]

Don't you remember?

[Smokey Bear PSA Voice]

Smokey Bear says avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on smokeybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

Right.

[Smokey Bear PSA Voice]

Thanks, honey bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the Ad Council.

[WSECU Credit Union Announcer]

WSECU isn't just one of Washington's best credit unions. We're a Forbes Best in State five years running.

[Dana Schwartz]

Why?

[WSECU Credit Union Announcer]

Because we put you first. Lower fees, early payday's financial guidance and service second to none. As a member owned cooperative, we love Washington as much as you do. From the Olympic mountains to the rolling Palouse. Join us and discover how much we care about your financial well being. Because what we really do best is invest in you. Visit wsecu.org today to learn more. Washington let's credit union.

[Dana Schwartz]

You're listening to Hoax, a production of iHeart podcasts.

[Lizzie Logan]

Folks.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

It's a hoax.

[Dana Schwartz]

How?

[Lizzie Logan]

No one ever seems to believe me when I Swear I never was deceiving I'm left wondering

[Dana Schwartz]

welcome to Hoax, a podcast about the lies we wish were

[Lizzie Logan]

true and truths that sound like lies.

[Dana Schwartz]

I'm the ghost of Dana Schwartz.

[Lizzie Logan]

And I'm the evil twin of Lizzie Logan. Welcome to the show, Dana. This podcast episode is coming out on March 30th. Okay, so I thought, you know, assuming not every single person listens to it the very day it drops, this might be a good time to talk about April Fool's Day.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's an April Fool's Day episode almost. Have you ever done an April Fool's prank in your life?

[Lizzie Logan]

Um, yes. The. I've, like, told lies and then been, like, April Fools. That. That's not true.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And the one time that I, like, did something was shout out Lily, who I know listens and was my roommate in college. I had, like, a bunch of old teen magazines, just whatever. Saved from my youth. And they always came with posters that you could fill out. And so I, like, covered her room in the posters.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, that's cute.

[Lizzie Logan]

And when she came home, she was like, that's funny. It's not really like a. I guess it's like a prank.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's a prank, but, like, it's not a fool.

[Lizzie Logan]

It's not a fool. There's no, like, lie to it. There's no hoax to it. There's no hoax to it. It was just a funny thing to do.

[Dana Schwartz]

You haven't made her a fool.

[Lizzie Logan]

No.

[Dana Schwartz]

I think one year I got very, like, excited by the idea of, like, pranking my sister with, like, things I read. Like, pranks I read from, like, Seventeen magazine.

[Lizzie Logan]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Dana Schwartz]

And I don't remember if I tried to do it or chickened out, but I maybe replaced the top of her deodorant with cream cheese. But then, like, it didn't. Whatever. I. Even if I did it, and I'm not sure if I actually did it or not, it didn't, like, look good enough to actually work.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. There was the one. The only one I know of that I think worked because I saw other people fall for. It was scraping out the inside of an Oreo and replacing it with toothpaste.

[Dana Schwartz]

The thing is.

[Lizzie Logan]

Which I think would look.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. Convincing if it's been enough.

[Lizzie Logan]

Convincing enough to make a person take one bite.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. And I would for sure. I don't examine the cream of an Oreo.

[Lizzie Logan]

No.

[Dana Schwartz]

I think the problem with April Fool's Day is I don't really like it.

[Lizzie Logan]

Really.

[Dana Schwartz]

I don't find pranks very funny.

[Lizzie Logan]

And yet we have a podcast about hoaxes.

[Dana Schwartz]

I guess I find them funny when they're done to other people and I can learn about them. I don't find engaging with pranks on a personal level funny. And I don't like brands doing them.

[Lizzie Logan]

No, I. Brands, absolutely. It became cringe it for like immediately. It was like one or two years

[Dana Schwartz]

they were allowed to do it. And like, I don't know, maybe like 2005 was the last year they could do it.

[Lizzie Logan]

I will say. So we're gonna talk about the history of April Fool's Day and then we're gonna talk about a couple of my favorite April Fool's Day.

[Dana Schwartz]

This is such a good idea.

[Lizzie Logan]

Because of course, yeah, it's the hoax holiday.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's the Hoax holiday. Happy Hoax Day.

[Lizzie Logan]

But one that I ended up not including because the ones that I picked are just so much better. But one that I ended up not including, which I guess I'm including because I'm just gonna spitball it now. Google, I think, really, like, set the tone for a lot of brand pranks. And they used to do. They used to like, make little funny websites that were sort of semi functional where it was like you could Google where your socks are if you couldn't find your socks and like, stuff like that. And they officially stopped doing pranks in 2020. Yeah, because they didn't want to be whimsical during the pandemic. And I also think they just didn't want to do fake news and they haven't picked it up since. And I'm like, you know, if you're. If you're a brand trying to do an April Fool's Day prank when not even Google is doing it, like, no.

[Dana Schwartz]

Do you know that Pokemon Go started as an April Fool's prank?

[Lizzie Logan]

No, I thought it. I mean, I thought it started as like a joke. I didn't know that it was an April Fool's Day prank.

[Dana Schwartz]

It began as an April Fool's Google thing. Basically, Google released a video inviting people to use Google Maps to catch Pokemon. It was like another, like, interactive thing where they're like, used Google Maps to catch Pokemon. And basically the programmers were like, oh, this is actually like a pretty good idea. And then they developed it as a game.

[Lizzie Logan]

Okay, well, I love that. I can't believe I didn't find that when I was researching this. I did find the one where they rolled out a feature where the. You could press a button and there was like the conversation over button where it would add an. It would add a Gift to your email of, like, the minion dressed as Queen Elizabeth dropping a mic. And then it would automatically archive the whole thing, except that they replaced the actual send an archive button with it. And so people, like, did that on their, like, work emails and got really mad.

[Dana Schwartz]

I mean, that's very funny. But also, yeah, you can't interrupt the normal flow of events.

[Lizzie Logan]

And Gmail was announced on April Fool's Day, so people thought it was a prank. Anyway, let's get back to.

[Dana Schwartz]

Let's.

[Lizzie Logan]

Let's get back to the better hoax.

[Dana Schwartz]

Main hoax, main hoax. But that Pokemon Go thing is interesting, though.

[Lizzie Logan]

That's super interesting. I'm, like, annoyed that I didn't know that.

[Dana Schwartz]

There's a very special episode, another podcast that I do about that. So if you want to go listen the full story of that, everyone can go listen.

[Lala Kent]

Everyone.

[Lizzie Logan]

Pause this. Listen to that. Okay, we're back. Okay, we're back. Nobody really knows when April Fool's Day started, but it's sometime, like, in the 1560s.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, this is much older than I thought.

[Lizzie Logan]

Well, but again, because nobody knows. So, like, it's commonly thought that in the 1560s, when various European countries started moving from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, the first day of the year moved from, like, around Easter to January. And so if you still celebrated New Year in spring, you were like, a fool.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, that's like, a fun explanation, whether or not that's true or not.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yes. It was like, ha, ha. You didn't get the memo about the calendar. Yeah, there's, you know, a reference in one book from, like, 1561 where it's. Someone in April was. Was sent on a fool's errand. And they're like, could this be an ancient April Fool?

[Dana Schwartz]

And you're like, probably not, but maybe.

[Lizzie Logan]

But who knows?

[Dana Schwartz]

They had the. At least they had the concept of fools in the 1500.

[Lizzie Logan]

Well, Emperor Constantine. There's a famous story about Emperor Constantine. He made his jester kugel king for a day. And King Kugel declared that going forward on that day, which was April 1, it would be like a day of merriment and jokes. Oh, except that's not true.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, no, he got me.

[Lizzie Logan]

But you can find it, like, cited on the Web as, like, well, there's the story of Constantine. But if you see that listener, you know that it's not a very good journalist, because that is a lie. There was a BU professor in the 80s, and he got a call from the Associated Press who were like, can you please explain the origin of April Fool's? Day. And he was like, no. Like, I can't help you. And they were like, come on, come on. And he was so insistent that the

[Dana Schwartz]

guy just made this story up as a meta prank.

[Lizzie Logan]

He thought everyone would know it was a joke because kugel is a Jewish dessert.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. I was like, that's a very funny name for a jester.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. But it's not real. It's a little April Fool's Day joke.

[Dana Schwartz]

I mean, good for him. I love his commitment to the bit.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yep. In France, April Fool's Day, it's like April Fish Day.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh.

[Lizzie Logan]

Because fish are really hungry in the spring, so they're easy to catch. So if you're an April fish, it means you're gullible. You're the poisson d'.

[Ana Navarro]

Avrille.

[Lizzie Logan]

Their tradition for April Fish Day is that the big joke is that you tape a paper fish to someone's back.

[Dana Schwartz]

I mean, that's funny.

[Lizzie Logan]

It's cute.

[Dana Schwartz]

I would like a holiday if that was the thing.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yes. You're allowed to do that to Dana.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah, that's like, cute. Once a year. Once a year on April Fool's Day, you can tape a paper fish to my back. And then I'm like, hi, you got me.

[Lizzie Logan]

In Scotland, it's goalk day or hunt a gowk. It means hunt the gowk, which is a cuckoo bird or a fool. And the idea is that you send, like a young person to deliver a very important message and you, like, give them the slip of paper and they. I mean, this is in the pre telephone era. You would give them a very important message and you would say, okay, go give this message to so and so. And then the recipient opens it up and it says, dinna laugh, dinna smile, but hunt the gok another mile. And they're supposed to then say, okay, go, go deliver this to another person. You see how long you can make them run around. But you're supposed to stop by midday, not supposed to do it all day.

[Dana Schwartz]

Okay, that's nice that there's like a rule built in to not abuse the children.

[Lizzie Logan]

The. The most common old timey prank for April Fool's Day seems to just be like sending someone somewhere to get something that doesn't exist.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. And you know what? That's good. I also like if you're only doing it to children, like, this should be like a child holiday.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. Or like your assistant or something, you know?

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

In Iceland, it's halaipa, which means Run April. And the idea is that you get people to go someplace so you might be like, oh my God, you know, Best Buy TVs are only $10. And see if you can get a bunch of people to go there. You might say, like, we just saw Harry Styles at the corner store and you dropped to get a bunch of people to go there.

[Dana Schwartz]

Do you think there's something interesting about the fact that so many disparate cultures all have like a built in day for like gentle pranks?

[Lizzie Logan]

I mean, I think humans have a sense of humor and probably the Europeans mixed back in the day and brought each other their culture.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. And I think there's something to be said for like, you know, how memes give people who aren't that funny, like the framework to be funny. I think sometimes being funny is like a human need, but like telling your child, like, oh, deliver this message. Like, you don't have to be a creative or funny person to do that, but you get to have a little fun. So it's almost like a proto meme that you get to feel like part of something and have fun. And I don't mean this disparagingly in the way that. And you don't have to think of a joke, but it's like you get to just like have something and be part of something without actually coming up with a joke yourself.

[Lizzie Logan]

Totally. I mean, I think sharing a laugh with friends, like people will. Don't need an excuse and won't find any excuse.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah, yeah. I think like the. And sometimes you need the framework to build things that are funny. If people aren't like professionally creative people.

[Lizzie Logan]

But some people are professionally creative.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's true.

[Lizzie Logan]

So I am going to now get into some. Might be kind of a short episode.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's great.

[Lizzie Logan]

Two of my favorite professionally produced April Fool's Day books. So for the first one, and I won't tell you the name of it, I'm just gonna do a little bit of table setting.

[Dana Schwartz]

Okay.

[Lizzie Logan]

England is sort of famous for having bland food.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yes.

[Lizzie Logan]

And that's not, I don't mean that as like an insult.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, you'll travel all over the world for spices and not use them.

[Lizzie Logan]

So true. But like they're, they're from 1940 through 1954, food was literally rationed. Yeah.

[Dana Schwartz]

So there was a war happening, if I recall.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yes. And even afterward they kept rationing for like another 10 years. So food was not considered as like culturally significant as, say, the arts. Like, you know, England, they're gonna be like, we got Shakespeare, we got, you know, composers, we got this, we got that. They're not thinking like, oh, people should innovate in terms of food. There's no home cooking culture.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

There's just like, I hope we have meat this week, and we're going to have eggs and potatoes.

[Dana Schwartz]

And you know what? They have Jane Austen and Shakespeare. So, like, rest on your laurels.

[Lizzie Logan]

They're great, they're doing great. But knowing about different cuisines is not a big thing in England at this time. They didn't get pizza until the 70s and 80s. The only place that you can get olive oil is at the chemist because people use it to loosen their earwax. So, like, it's not. It's just not a thing to be that into food or even into foreign food. And foreign, in this case means any place that's not England.

[Dana Schwartz]

Although I'm gonna do, like, a crate, a hot take. And I know food in England has gotten much, much better in the decades since rationing. Like a fry up for breakfast and then like, a tea and scone and clotted cream. I genuinely love.

[Lizzie Logan]

Oh, sure. It's.

[Dana Schwartz]

I think it's great. I'm just saying I want to be on the record as saying Dana Schwartz thinks that the reputation of bad British food is no longer entirely accurate, and everyone should have some clotted cream.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda, and the bfg. But did you know he was also a spy?

[Lizzie Logan]

Was this before he wrote his stories?

[Dana Schwartz]

It must have been.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roald Dahl is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans.

[Dana Schwartz]

What?

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either.

[Dana Schwartz]

Okay, I don't think that's true.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelts, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman? And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did the Secret Agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about, and they are experts. At everything. Here at the Nick Dickenpole show, we're not afraid to make mistakes. What Coogler did that I think was so unique.

[Lizzie Logan]

Who's he?

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

He's the writer, director.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

Who do you think he is?

[Dana Schwartz]

I don't know.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

You meet the, like the president.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

You think Canada has a president? You think China has a president? Let's walk through that. God, I love that thing. I use it all the time.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

What color?

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it like it's like the

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

old Polish saying, not my monkey's, not my circus. Yep, it was a good one. I like that saying.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

It's an actual Polish saying.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

It is an actual Polish.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

Better version of play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[Narrator for The Secret World of Roald Dahl]

Yes.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Co-host]

Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time. I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong.

[Nick Dickenpole Show Host]

Listen to the Nick Dick and polcho on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Lala Kent]

Hello, gorgeous. It's Lala Kent, host of Untraditionally Lala. My days of filling up cups at Sur may be over, but I'm still loving life in the Valley. Life on the other side of the hill is giving grown up vibes. But over here on my podcast, Untraditionally Lala, I'm still that Lala. You either love or love to hate. I've been full on oversharing with fans, family and former frenemies like Tom Schwartz.

[Dana Schwartz]

I had a little bone to pick

[Lala Kent]

with Schwarzy when he came on the pod. You don't feel bad that you told me I was a bootleg housewife? I almost flipped a pizza in your lap.

[Lizzie Logan]

I was so. God, I literally forgot about that until just now.

[Dana Schwartz]

Sorry, I don't want to.

[Lizzie Logan]

I don't want to blame alcohol that

[Dana Schwartz]

I got to blame that one on the alcohol.

[Lala Kent]

This is about laughing and learning when life just keeps on life in. Because I make mistakes so that you guys don't have to. We're growing, we're thriving. And yes, sometimes we're barely surviving, but we do it all with love. It's unruly, it's unafraid, it's untraditionally la la. Listen to Untraditionally la la on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Smokey Bear PSA Voice]

14 years in prison for killing a young woman. A 15 year sentence for a crash that caused three deaths. 12 and a half years for killing a child and critically injuring her mother. All true stories, all caused by marijuana. Impaired drivers no matter what you tell yourself, if you feel different, you drive different. So if you're high, just don't drive. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council.

[Ana Navarro]

I'm Ana Navarro, and on my new podcast, BLEEP with Ana Navarro, I'm talking to the people closest to the biggest issues happening in your community and around the world. Because I know deep down inside right now we are all cursing and asking what the BLEEP is going on. I'm talking to people like Julie K. Brown, who broke the explosive story on Jeffrey Epstein in 2018. These victims have been let down time and time again for decades and decades and decades by local law enforcement, by federal law enforcement, by administration after administration.

[Dana Schwartz]

The Justice Department through, I think we counted four presidential administrations failed these victims.

[Ana Navarro]

Listen to BLEEP with Ana Navarro as part of the My Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Lizzie Logan]

So, but let's take it back to 1957 and the BBC's Panorama, which is like one of their premier news programs, broadcasts the following. And I don't know if it's possible to get the rights to the audio of this, so I'm going to have Dana watch it and then recap it.

[Dana Schwartz]

Okay, great.

[Lizzie Logan]

So this is playing on April 1,

[Dana Schwartz]

1957, on the news.

[Lizzie Logan]

It isn't only in Britain that spring this year has taken everyone by surprise. Most important of all, it's resulted in an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop. The last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer.

[Dana Schwartz]

I. I'm so happy right now. It is an old BBC newsreel with, like, a man speaking in that voice, that, like, transatlantic voice like this.

[Lizzie Logan]

It's the actual guy who did Panorama. Like, it's the real newscaster of the time.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's the guy. And he's walking us through the early spaghetti harvest in Switzerland with specific details about the plant and how it's grown and how it's harvested and showing lovely footage of, like, nice Swiss families plucking it from bushes and trees. I find it actually genuinely astonishingly plausible

[Lizzie Logan]

if you've never, if you have, like, seen spaghetti in real life once in your life.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

If you don't see pictures of it in magazines and there's no Internet, why wouldn't you know that spaghetti doesn't grow on trees?

[Dana Schwartz]

Also, like, okay, spaghetti as a word to us is, we know what it is, but again, it's a foreign word. If you do not frequently eat spaghetti, there's no reason that that word would mean. I mean, we know what a pasta is. I'm like, I completely watching that. It sounds so silly. And I completely understand why people believe it, because it's plausible and things are much weirder than that that grow.

[Lizzie Logan]

Really, the only way to get spaghetti at this time in England is, like, canned spaghetti made by Heinz. You don't get the dry noodles and make it at home. So they're like, maybe that's where that can happen.

[Dana Schwartz]

And you know what else is in cans? A lot of vegetables. Yeah, I know that. We historical people, people in the future, tend to look back on historical people and be like, they're so dumb. They're so stupid. If I saw that and I had only seen canned spaghetti and did not know what that is, I'm like, yeah, maybe it's a thing that grows on trees and has to be dried. A lot of things.

[Lala Kent]

Beans.

[Dana Schwartz]

Beans are a carb that are kind of, like, mushy and like a carb you can eat in red sauce. And those are grown somehow.

[Lizzie Logan]

Who knew?

[Dana Schwartz]

Who knew?

[Lizzie Logan]

So people mostly got that it was a prank.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

But some call the BBC and they say, where can I get a spaghetti bush? I want to grow some spaghetti. And the BBC tells them, place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best. Which I think is a very kind way of saying, this is a prank that you fell for.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's a charming British prank. A dry British prank.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yes. The piece was thought of by Panorama cameraman Charles Dieger, who is from Austria and once heard his school teacher teasing one of his classmates, being like, you're so dumb, you'd believe that spaghetti grew on trees.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah, that's funny.

[Lizzie Logan]

So Michael Peacock, the editor of Panorama, gave him a budget of £100 to produce the piece.

[Dana Schwartz]

I love it. This is like a small, small, industri. Industrious artist at work.

[Lizzie Logan]

The broadcast was voiced by. I mean, the perfect name for this guy. Richard Dimbleby.

[Dana Schwartz]

No. Yeah, his name is Richard Dimbleby. That's what that guy is.

[Lizzie Logan]

The very respected host of Panorama, which made it seem more plausible to people because it was the voice they'd heard on the BBC every night. And, yeah, his name is Richard Dimbleby.

[Dana Schwartz]

I also like that they're like, you might be wondering why it's grown in such even lengths, obviously breeding. And I'm like, yes, plants are bred selectively.

[Lizzie Logan]

I mean, we have square watermelon now.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

For the stacking. I think most adults, after, like, thinking about it for a little Bit caught on that it was a prank. But you know when you hear something as a kid and you accept it as fact and you don't really think about it, but you still remember it?

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

If you go on Reddit, there's a few British adults who saw that as a kid, didn't know what April Fool's Day was, never thought to say, hey, where does spaghetti come from? And they're like, I was pretty old when I realize that spaghetti doesn't grow on tree.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, that's so sweet.

[Lizzie Logan]

It's so sweet. The prank also had a pretty long afterlife. Ten years later, Australian reporter Dan Webb basically remade it, but for Australia.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And he talked about Australia's spaghetti growing region and how the farmers were facing financial ruin because of the spagworm, which was eating their crop.

[Dana Schwartz]

Of course.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. It was then used as a commercial in 1978. You can watch like, it's just an ad for spaghetti and they just grow it on trees. And Martha Stewart did it as like a little funny bit on her show in 2009. She brought out her spaghetti bush and showed how she prepares her fresh cut spaghetti.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's like a funny little thing on April. She did it on April Fool's Day, I imagine.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yes. And it's like, I mean, I don't know how many inside jokes there are for the food community, but that's one of them.

[Dana Schwartz]

I like it.

[Lizzie Logan]

I like it, too. And I think you're gonna like this one even more.

[Dana Schwartz]

You know what? You're converting me. I like April Fool's Day now.

[Lizzie Logan]

When they're good. Yeah. All right, so I want to give a shout out. I don't remember this person's name, but this was submitted by a listener.

[Dana Schwartz]

Okay. Thank you so much.

[Lizzie Logan]

The April 1 edition of Sports Illustrated 1985 runs an article by George Plimpton titled the Curious Case of Sid Finch. Hmm. And it is. I've read it. It's a wonderful piece of reporting about the Mets. They're currently at spring training in Florida and they're hiding their new secret weapon, which is a pitcher who's very quirky. He wears one hiking boot on his right foot and his left foot is bare. He showed up out of the blue one day. He wasn't recruited. He just found a scout and said, I've learned the art of the pitch. His name is Sid Finch and he can throw a ball 168 miles an hour.

[Dana Schwartz]

Well, okay, great, great, great, great.

[Lizzie Logan]

If you don't know baseball, that's not possible.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah, no, it's like, 90s are, like, really, really fast.

[Lizzie Logan]

You can break 100. Like, a top. Top pitcher can break 100, but not by that much.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. That sounds insane.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. Sid is a Harvard dropout whose foster parent died in a plane crash in the Himalayan mountains. He knows a dozen languages and plays the French horn. He lives like a monk with very few possessions and sleeps on a rug on the floor. He's a devout Buddhist. Sid is actually short for his chosen name, which is Siddhartha. He wears his hat backward. He doesn't like to dress in uniform, and he doesn't even want money. He doesn't have a contract with the Mets because he's just in it for the love of the pitch.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

He says, I don't want to do practice. I don't want to be with the team. I'm going to come when I want. I just pitch. It's all very Zen. And they have been. There's a tent erected in the Mets training area for him to practice in, sort of away from everybody else. He is, unfortunately injuring the catcher every time this guy has to catch.

[Dana Schwartz]

But, you know, the 168 miles an

[Lizzie Logan]

hour, that's the price of greatness.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

The article is pretty long, and it ends on this note of like, well, hopefully he's at the season opener.

[Dana Schwartz]

Can't wait to see him. Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And Mets fans are very excited.

[Dana Schwartz]

Well, yeah. I mean, also, you're like, sports Illustrated is not a fun a. Notably, to my knowledge. I don't read Sports Illustrated. To be fair, I wouldn't think of it as a funny magazine.

[Lizzie Logan]

No, people don't.

[Dana Schwartz]

And I. I mean, George Plimpton is, like, a famous writer.

[Lizzie Logan]

Oh. And he's written for the magazine before. He's written things that turned out to be true. So Mets fans are very excited. Mets have been, like, slowly on the. Up on the. On the past few seasons. They're like, oh, my God, this is gonna do it. This is gonna, you know, get us all the way. As far as the other Mets players know, most of them, this could be real because there has been, like, a gangly guy at spring training. He's in a real Mets uniform. He's number 21. He's been sitting in the bullpen and then going behind a tent. When fans ask the pitching coach about it, about, like, hey, who's that guy? He just goes, oh, you'll. You'll hear about it later. Ah. And there are other reporters around, and they keep overhearing the pitching coach saying, like, hey, like, how's Syd? Doing. So there's, you know, talk of a new Mets player named Sid. Yeah. At a press conference, the pitching coach just says, oh, we haven't. We haven't slotted him into the lineup yet.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, so the Mets are in on it.

[Lizzie Logan]

If you were to call into Sports Illustrated or write a letter, you'll reach the staff who, as far as they know, nothing is amiss. So they just say, sports Illustrated hold its reporters to the highest standards.

[Dana Schwartz]

Wow. That's. I mean, this is taking a prank very far.

[Lizzie Logan]

It's taking it far. By simply not telling people what you're doing.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And letting them continue to believe that you run a magazine that prints only facts. Yeah. The Mets beat reporter gets really mad and is like, why did you give this exclusive to Sports Illustrated? I'm here every day. And they're like, guess he's a better reporter than you. Some general managers of other teams call the commissioner of baseball, and they're like, you can't let this guy pitch. He's going to hurt our batters. Yeah.

[Dana Schwartz]

You can't let someone pitch at 168 miles an hour. It ruins the game if Ironman is playing. Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

The subhead of the article, like, so the. The. The headline is the Curious Case of Sid Finch. The subhead is, he's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse. Impressively liberated from our opulent lifestyle. Sid's deciding about yoga and his future in baseball. And I'm going to give listeners a chance to think about that, and I'm gonna repeat it.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, no. Is there some, like, clever pun I'm supposed to.

[Lizzie Logan]

He's a pitcher, part yogi and part recluse, impressively liberated from our opulent lifestyle, Sid's deciding about yoga and his future in baseball.

[Dana Schwartz]

Is it. What does it spell out? What did the letter spell out?

[Lizzie Logan]

Happy April Fool's Day.

[Dana Schwartz]

Okay, great. I should have thought. I was like, I know it's spelling out something. Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And then it says a fib here. Yeah. So they didn't really try to hide that it was fake. George Plimpton was like, I thought it was ridiculous.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. He wears one hiking boot. But also, it's a context thing, where.

[Lizzie Logan]

It's like a context thing.

[Dana Schwartz]

If you're not looking for a prank.

[Lizzie Logan]

This was the managing editor's idea. He realized that, much like this podcast, Sports Illustrated came out on Mondays, and he was like, oh, my God, April 1st is a Monday this year. We should do something with that. Nelson Doubleday Jr. At this point owns the publishing house that prints George Plimpton's books, and he's also chairman of the board of the Mets. So going through Plimpton, going through Nelson Doubleday is how they were able to set all of this up.

[Dana Schwartz]

French guys.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah, connected guys. Plimpton writes the article, and then the photographer, Lane Stewart recruits his friend Joe Burton to go to Florida to take some pictures.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, so they actually have a lanky guy hanging around in a Mets uniform as the fake Sid.

[Lizzie Logan]

Burton is a teacher in Illinois. He's 6 4. He needs a really beat up mitt, so he borrows one from one of his seventh grade students. And the seventh grade boy is like, yeah, you can borrow my mitt. In exchange, I want a copy of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. And he got it. Fair, Fair, Fair.

[Dana Schwartz]

You know what? Fair.

[Lizzie Logan]

Stuart and Burton know each other because they both really like miniatures. Aww.

[Dana Schwartz]

Well, everything. You're 64. Everything's a miniature.

[Lizzie Logan]

So true. But that's like how they know each other. And Burton's a big baseball fan, so he's like, great, great.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's so fun. He gets to go to spring training with the Mets.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. The pictures that run with this are, like, very involved. Burton had been to Egypt, so they have pictures of, you know, quote, unquote, Sid Finch traveling the world. And then they need pictures of Sid's dorm room at Harvard. But one of the staffers in the Sports Illustrated art department has a son who goes to Harvard, so they get some pictures there. This was going to be five pages, but it keeps getting more involved.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's so fun. I love a group project. You're like, whose son goes to Harvard?

[Lizzie Logan]

It becomes 14 pages. The Mets are in on it. The pitching coach is in on it. He coached Burton through, like, how to do a pitch for the pictures that they took on the beach.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

Because that's where he practices. Obviously, he's not in the tent. He's on the beach for yoga reasons. I imagine there was at least one newspaper who sent someone to go find Finch. And then they had to call him and say, oh, come back.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, no.

[Lizzie Logan]

ABC does a piece on it and it's three minutes long, but. And then right at the end, they say, april Fools. But, you know, if you only caught the first two minutes, so they knew

[Dana Schwartz]

it was an April Fools.

[Lizzie Logan]

It doesn't take a lot to figure out. It basically takes like, you know, it takes a few days for sort of everyone to get out to be like,

[Dana Schwartz]

oh, God, this came out on April Fools. This is ridiculous.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah, yeah. The Yankees have no Sense of humor

[Dana Schwartz]

about it, of course.

[Lizzie Logan]

Because they don't like the Mets. So they're just like, we think this sucks and is an insult to baseball.

[Dana Schwartz]

Honestly, it's the. It's a celebration of baseball.

[Lizzie Logan]

It totally is.

[Dana Schwartz]

Whimsy. A team project. Fun.

[Lizzie Logan]

The publisher of Sports Illustrated is a little bit mad. He's like, we can't print things that aren't true.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

Other than that, big, big hit. Mets fans are writing in with all these jokey letters, being like, man, I was so excited. Like, I want this to be real. And haven't the Mets suffered enough? Yeah. Someone sends a reporter to Burton's school to see how fast he can pitch. And he pitches 68 miles an hour, which is pretty good.

[Dana Schwartz]

Seems respectable.

[Lizzie Logan]

And then he's like, no, the. The one on your speedometer is broken. It's 168.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's 168. That's fun.

[Lizzie Logan]

On April 1, the Mets have a press conference to announce Sid's retirement.

[Dana Schwartz]

All right. I mean, rip to his career.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yep. Burton goes, and he says, like, I'm just not ready for a baseball career. And then, in 1986, the Mets do win the World Series.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yay.

[Lizzie Logan]

Without Sid Finch.

[Dana Schwartz]

But with his spirit.

[Lizzie Logan]

But with his spirit. So it is, I think, like a fun, happy ending for all of the Mets fans who got their hopes up. They did get their World Series.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's like the buoyant spirit of Sid Finch carried them on with a sense of community and camaraderie to win the World Series.

[Lizzie Logan]

And maybe the impossible is possible. Maybe a person could pitch crazier faster than anyone can pitch.

[Dana Schwartz]

I like people being sweet and nice.

[Lizzie Logan]

In 1987, Plimpton turns it into a novel. Yes.

[Dana Schwartz]

Burton.

[Lizzie Logan]

Burton goes with him on the book tour.

[Dana Schwartz]

Great.

[Lizzie Logan]

If you see him around Chicago, a lot of people recognize him, and he's happy to sign an autograph as Sid Finch.

[Dana Schwartz]

I am from Chicago. I might have seen him. If I ever see a tall man

[Lizzie Logan]

wandering around, he's pretty striking looking. And whenever the Mets are in town playing the Cubs or the White Sox, they always set aside some tickets for him, which he loves because he's a big baseball fan. In 2015, for the 30th anniversary of the prank, ESPN makes a 30 for 30 about it. And this revives a lot of interest in Sid Finch. And the Brooklyn Cyclones decide to do a Sid Finch night where they hand out Sid Finch bobbleheads, and they do yoga on the field, and they raise money for relief efforts in Nepal.

[Dana Schwartz]

I'M looking at the picture, it looks like he also got a baseball card.

[Lizzie Logan]

Oh, I'm sure.

[Dana Schwartz]

That's so cute. I really like the photograph. The photograph of him.

[Lizzie Logan]

The photographs are great.

[Dana Schwartz]

Is really striking one. Barefoot, he has a. He has giant feet.

[Lizzie Logan]

The Cyclones play the national anthem on the French horn because that's what Sid Finch played, of course. And they let Burton throw out the first pitch.

[Dana Schwartz]

Aw.

[Lizzie Logan]

In 2025, he finally goes to Queens for the 40th anniversary of the prank, and he goes to Citi Field and hangs out with the Mets. And he talks at a press conference. I don't know if he did the press conference in character or not, but adorable, charming, adorable. And he's so happy to be Sid Finch. I think he's retired now, but his wife gave some quote where he was like, this is the dream come true. Because he loves baseball. He was never good enough to play baseball, but he is a baseball celebrity.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And that is Sid Finch. And that is our April Fool's Day episode.

[Dana Schwartz]

Lizzy, this makes me so happy. And honestly, news you can use, because this is news that makes you feel good in a world that can be very challenging and difficult. And these are stories about people coming together just to have a little bit of fun.

[Lizzie Logan]

Having a laugh.

[Dana Schwartz]

Having a laugh. A lot of our hoaxes have dark sides and our manipulations and our. There's, like, human cruelty involved. And these ones are just. Just to have some fun.

[Lizzie Logan]

Just to have some fun and, like, believe in a. In a sillier world for a moment where spaghetti grows on trees and you can pitch 200 miles an hour and, you know, you can Google where your socks are and just have fun.

[Dana Schwartz]

You know, what else is great is it gives people a sense of, like, an inside joke that everyone can be a part of.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah.

[Dana Schwartz]

Which I think everyone likes to feel a part of something. And that's the service. Something like Sid Finch does is. It's an. It's a meme. It's like an inside joke for strangers.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah. It also not to, like, take it to the depressing place. But, like, so often I'll see a video that brings me such delight until I realize that it's AI.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah.

[Lizzie Logan]

And that is such a bummer because I wanted it to be real, and it wasn't like I wanted a, you know, toddler and a penguin to be best friends, and they're not. And it was also, like, no one made this as a sketch. They just asked the. They just asked the computer to do it. But the idea that the BBC Went through the trouble of pretending that spaghetti grows on trees. I'm like, that's delightful. Because even though it's the same letdown of, oh, that's not real, it's like, but someone did that. Someone, like, put all that effort into it. And that's delightful.

[Dana Schwartz]

I find AI Misinformation odious.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yes.

[Dana Schwartz]

Because also, I don't think it's a joke for everyone. It is to trick you, the viewer. Yeah. Where something like this, like, the Sid Finch thing or the spaghetti on trees, it's supposed to be, like, a moment of, like, oh, ha, ha. And then, you know it's a prank, and then you're in on it. And you can, like, appreciate the humor and the ingenuity and, like, the community spirit and work that went into it. Where like, an AI video of, like, a baby and a penguin being friends. It's some one guy at his computer doing this, being like, those stupid idiots will fall for this.

[Lizzie Logan]

Or I would find this cute and I want it to exist, but I'm not willing to put in the effort to, like, find a baby and a

[Dana Schwartz]

penguin or animate it.

[Lizzie Logan]

Or animate it. Write a little short story about it.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. There's no artistry. I think I will be on the record as saying I am anti AI. I think it degrades creativity in human culture.

[Lizzie Logan]

It sucks. It sucks a lot. But, yeah, I mean, both of these, I also think, like, speak to their moment really well. Like, you know, it's a prank. The spaghetti trees could only happen in a moment where there was, like, curiosity about how food is made in other countries, but no knowledge about how food

[Dana Schwartz]

is made in other countries, but very little information.

[Lizzie Logan]

And the Sid Finch thing, I mean, there are so many, many quirky athletes who have weird rituals.

[Dana Schwartz]

Dennis Rodman,

[Lizzie Logan]

so, you know, maybe he would, if he were a baseball player, have only one shoe.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah. I've watched Heated Rivalry. Those guys are doing all sorts of things. One guy's wearing special socks before he plays hockey. Yeah, they do. You haven't gotten there yet. But that's not really a spoiler.

[Lizzie Logan]

There's so many. So it's like that's. That's part of the joke is like, a love of baseball and a love of strange, quirky athletes just taken to the nth degree.

[Dana Schwartz]

You know what else I'm sort of nostalgic for is both of these stories. Are people liking journalists.

[Lizzie Logan]

Oh, sure.

[Dana Schwartz]

It's like journalism both being important, but also, like, whimsical and fun enough that everyone could be in on the joke.

[Lizzie Logan]

And they were given a budget.

[Dana Schwartz]

Yeah, they were given a budget. There's like, an element of, like, delight. And they. In order to have done either of these pranks, it needs to be established enough in a culture that people care about it. And I'm nostalgic for people caring about the news and also print media.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah, I'm very nostalgic for the budgets. I am a freelance writer by day. And you can't get a dollar to do anything.

[Dana Schwartz]

No.

[Lizzie Logan]

Imagine, let alone take your friend to Florida to stage pictures to pretend that you're a baseball player.

[Dana Schwartz]

I mean, that does sound like a good story, though.

[Lizzie Logan]

It would be so fun. It would be great. It would be great.

[Dana Schwartz]

Oh, no. I made myself sad.

[Lizzie Logan]

Sorry. I feel like I took us down that road.

[Dana Schwartz]

But happy April Fool's Day, listeners.

[Lizzie Logan]

Happy April Fool's Day, listeners. And Dana, even though we're recording this, not anywhere near April Fool's Day, you

[Dana Schwartz]

know what I would love on the Instagram in the DMs, please or email. Please share any, like, good, fun pranks that you were involved in on April Fools? Yes, I would love that.

[Lizzie Logan]

That led to laughter and happiness.

[Dana Schwartz]

If they're good enough, we can do like a little mailbag episode. Sure, if we get enough fun. Fun ones.

[Lizzie Logan]

Or I'll just repost them.

[Dana Schwartz]

That too.

[Lizzie Logan]

Yeah.

[Dana Schwartz]

Lizzie, thank you so much. Where can the good people find you?

[Lizzie Logan]

The good people can always DM me@HoxThePodcast on the ol Instagram. What about you, Dana?

[Dana Schwartz]

They can find me on Instagram. Aina Schwartz with three z's and also on TikTok or [e-mail].

[Lizzie Logan]

it's in our Instagram bio.

[Dana Schwartz]

Thank you so much for listening.

[Lizzie Logan]

Please Hoax responsibly.

[Dana Schwartz]

Bye.

[Lizzie Logan]

Hoax is a production of I Heart Podcasts. Our hosts are Dana Schwartz and Lindsay Logan. Our executive producers are Matt Frederick and Trevor Young, with supervising producer Rima El Kayali and producers Noams Griffin and Jesse Funk. Our theme music was composed by Lane Montgomery. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.

[Lala Kent]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.