SYMHC Classics: Three Legendary Pranks

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Stuff You Missed in History Class – SYMHC Classics: Three Legendary Pranks"

Podcast: Stuff You Missed in History Class
Hosts: Holly Frey & Tracy V. Wilson
Original Air Date: January 24, 2026 (Classic episode from December 1, 2021)

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Episode Overview

In this entertaining installment, Holly and Tracy delve into the lighter side of history, spotlighting three legendary pranks that span from enduring academic in-jokes to city-wide chaos and televised hoaxes. The hosts share a mix of harmless fun and far more disruptive mischief, each illustrating unique aspects of human creativity—and gullibility. The episode is infused with their signature warmth, wit, and good-natured skepticism, reminding us both of the joy and the complications historical pranks can bring.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Enduring Academic Legend: Josiah S. Carberry of Brown University

[02:48–12:57]

• Origins of the Prank:
  On January 24, 1929, a mysterious notice appeared at Brown University announcing a lecture by "J. S. Carberry" on a hilariously obscure topic: "archaic Greek architectural revetments in connection with Ionian philology." (05:21)

  • Host Holly Frey: "This was the birth of a prank, seemingly with no end." (05:55)

• Evolution of the Myth:
  Doubt was immediate, with colleagues tweaking the poster to read Carberry "will not" give a lecture.
  The persona of Carberry rapidly expanded:

  • Professor of "psychoceramics, the study of cracked pots"
  • An ungrammatical wife (Laura) and two daughters: Patricia (a poet) and Lois (who hunted puffins)
  • An accident-prone assistant, Truman Grayson (06:30)
  • Alleged world travels as reasons for his frequent lecture cancellations (08:20)

• The Legacy:
  Carberry’s name grew into a running in-joke spanning decades:

  • Banned from the Providence Journal for excessive, bogus family updates (09:11)
  • Set up a memorial fund for his "future late wife" with absurd donation rules (10:36)
  • Authored the "Carberry Cookbook: From Nuts to Soup," with humorous recipes like "Stuffed Camel" and "Boiled Water"
  • Even mentioned in the New York Times and spoofed on "16 Minutes" (11:14)
  • Still never photographed with his face visible; still a campus staple in spirit (12:47)

Notable Quote:

• Holly, joking about Carberry’s immortality:
  "Carberry, it appears, is either immortal or merely blessed with both longevity and vitality. It seems like as long as his name lives on, it’s going to stay that way." (12:47)

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2. A City Brought to Standstill: The 1810 Berners Street Hoax

[16:12–28:06]

• The Prankster:
  Theodore Hook, a precocious, rebellious wit, infamous for practical jokes and dodging responsibility.

  • Tracy: “He became a well known writer and wit…he carried the spirit of rebellious frolic with him.” (18:22)

• The Bet:
  Hook wagers with a friend that he can make a quiet, nondescript residence at 54 Berners Street, London, "the most famous in all London" in just a week. (19:39)

• The Setup:
  Hook writes ~1,000 fraudulent letters, summoning all manner of trades, officials, and VIPs for fake appointments on a single day, November 27, 1810.

  • "Mrs. Tottenham requests Mr. Blank will call upon her at 2 tomorrow as she wishes to consult him about the sale of an estate." (20:11)

• The Chaos Unleashed:

  • Deliveries and visitors start at 5 a.m., clogging the entire street and neighboring blocks.
  • A deluge of tradespeople: chimney sweeps, coalmen, bakers, dentists, jewelers, undertakers, and even the mayor respond to summons.
  • Services and costly goods pile up, including unwanted wedding cakes and custom coffins.
  • Police are eventually required to control the mayhem. It lasts through the day into late evening. (24:21)

• Aftermath & Impact:

  • Widespread inconvenience and financial losses, and a spike in copycat pranks.
  • Hook is suspected due to his reputation, but flees the city temporarily to avoid investigation.
  • The event becomes legendary—deemed "the greatest hoax that has ever been heard of in this metropolis" by the Morning Post. (23:03)

Notable Quotes:

• Tracy, summarizing the prank’s impact:
  "In short, it was an abysmal mess ... the greatest hoax that has ever been heard of in this metropolis was yesterday practiced in Berners Street, Oxford Street." (23:03)
• Holly, expressing her exasperation:
  "I would have set something on fire." (28:06)

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3. The BBC’s Spaghetti Tree Hoax

[28:06–39:15]

• Broadcast Details:
  On April 1, 1957, BBC’s respected news show Panorama aired a short, straight-faced documentary about the “spaghetti harvest” in Switzerland, claiming an "exceptionally heavy" crop thanks to ideal weather conditions.

  • Footage showed women harvesting spaghetti from trees and hanging noodles out to dry.

• The Joke’s Mechanics:

  • Narrated by trusted broadcaster Richard Dimbleby, giving the hoax added gravitas.
  • Inspired by a cameraman’s school memory of a teacher’s joke: “You’re so stupid, you’d believe spaghetti grows on trees.” (33:11)
  • Uncooked fresh spaghetti hung from trees for realism; shot on location in Switzerland. (34:00)

• Public Reaction:

  • Mixed: Some viewers called to correct the BBC, others believed it, and some wanted to buy spaghetti trees.
  • BBC operators carried on the joke, advising curious callers to "plant a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." (31:13)
  • Even the Director General of the BBC was briefly fooled.
  • International media responded, some complaining it was irresponsible, others amused.
  • Calgary Herald called it a "frightening joke," likening the deception to authoritarian propaganda—a comparison the hosts found excessive and amusing. (31:43)

• Legacy:

  • Considered one of the first televised pranks, and a lesson in critical thinking about media.
  • Producer David Wheeler (2004): “He [Dimbleby] had enough gravitas to float an aircraft carrier.” (35:43)
  • Wheeler, reflecting on the prank:
    "I think it was a good idea for people to be aware they couldn’t believe everything they saw on the television and that they ought to adopt a slightly critical attitude to it." (36:43)

Notable Quotes:

• Tracy, on public reactions:
  "Some people just thought it was in poor taste that a news program would run any sort of fake story. And a handful reportedly wanted to know if there was somewhere they could purchase spaghetti trees." (30:21)
• Holly, about the famous footage:
  “If not for the absurd subject matter, you would 100% believe it was a documentary. … Nothing about it reads as campy at all.” (38:10)

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Holly on April Fools:
  “If I’m interested in something, I tend to want to do it, usually right then, and if I wait, my interest may wane … I’m not the biggest fan of April Fool’s Day … it always feels a little bit like an amateur hour of irritation.” (03:30)

• On Carberry’s Donation Rules:
  “The university had to agree to establish a donation drive every Friday the 13th and every leap day of February 29th, where anyone could donate their loose change into brown jugs to add to the fund.” (10:36)

• On Media Literacy:
  David Wheeler: “It was a good idea for people to be aware they couldn’t believe everything they saw on the television and that they ought to adopt a slightly critical attitude to it.” (36:43)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:48] – Introduction to the episode and the Carberry prank
• [05:21] – The birth and evolution of the Carberry legend
• [10:36] – Carberry’s memorial fund and cookbook
• [12:57] – Transition to next story (commercial break)
• [16:12] – Introduction to Berners Street Hoax
• [20:11] – Mechanics of the prank: the fake correspondence
• [23:03] – The chaos and immediate aftermath
• [28:06] – Introduction to the BBC spaghetti tree hoax
• [29:11] – The production and narration of the segment
• [31:13] – Public’s reaction and famous “plant a sprig” line
• [33:11] – Origin of the prank idea
• [36:43] – The lesson on media skepticism and critical thinking
• [38:10] – Reflecting on the spaghetti tree broadcast

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Overall Tone & Takeaways

Holly and Tracy blend amusement, skepticism, and historical curiosity. The episode walks listeners through pranks that range from playful to disruptive—sometimes at the cost of others’ patience or resources. The stories reflect both the enduring human taste for mischief and the importance of questioning what we see, hear, and read—especially from sources we trust. With a mix of memorable anecdotes and lively asides, it’s a feast for both history buffs and lovers of clever capers.

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For Further Listening

• Search for the original BBC Spaghetti Harvest video online—per Holly, “it’s really easy to find this footage…” (38:10)
• The Carberry legend is ongoing at Brown University, with traces in campus culture and university lore.

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This episode is a joyful reminder: question what you see, enjoy a good story, and sometimes, embrace the silly side of history.

Transcript

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[Holly Fry]

Happy Saturday everybody. January 24, 1929 was the first appearance of a prank on the campus of Brown University, one that has continued on and on since then into the 21st century. So happy birthday to that prank, which is one of the three that we talk about in today's Saturday classic.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This originally came out on December 1st, 2021.

[Holly Fry]

Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

So not too long ago, Tracy I was looking up another possible episod which will go nameless in case it comes up, because I still might do it. And I stumbled across a list of historical pranks and hoaxes and we've covered some of those before. But some of these were new to me and it got me thinking about such things and whether any one of them might make another good episode. But really, the ones I was most interested in are a little bit shy of having enough information to be an episode all their own. So today I grouped a few together. If you are listening, you may be wondering, why not hold this until April Fool's Day? That seems like a perfect match, and it is. But here's the answer. It's twofold. One, I just didn't want to. I just didn't feel like it. If I'm interested in something, I tend to want to do it, usually right then, and if I wait, my interest may wane. And then where will we be? And two, I will confess to everyone now, I'm not the biggest fan of April Fool's Day. Here is why. It's a little bit of a snooty thing. It always feels a little bit like an amateur hour of irritation. Pranks? I don't like that. Which is not to say all pranks are bad, because some of them are very clever and legitimately fun. And there are things that happen on April Fool's Day that some people do that I really love. But two of the ones we're covering today are actually pretty delightful. And one was an April Fool's prank. One of the ones that we're talking about today would have left me in a full blown rage if I had been a part of it. But all of these pranks are fairly Legendary, and they're all quite different. So you're gonna get a smattering of things. So we've got a joke that kind of became a living legend. We have a large scale prank that created complete havoc. And we have a televised hoax that reminds us all of the importance of critical thinking.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So, first of these three. On January 24, 1929 at Brown University, a notice was posted on the University hall bulletin board that advertised an upcoming lecture. And here is what it said. On Thursday evening at 8:15 in Sales Hall, JS Carberry will give a lecture on archaic Greek architectural revetments in connection with Ionian philology. For tickets and further information, apply to Professor John Cena Spa.

[Holly Fry]

So this was the birth of a prank, seemingly with no end. From the beginning, there were doubters as to the identity and credentials of J.S. carberry. Upon seeing this lecture flyer, one of Professor Spa's colleagues, Professor Ben Clow, is said to have inserted the word not into the text so that it read carberry will not give a lecture. We should note here too that even in the documentation that you can find at Brown University, sometimes the word philology in that lecture title is listed as though it said Phonology Clow, which is.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Also a name I've heard people say as Clough, because there's lots of ways to say things. Followed up with Professor Spaeth to ask him what this was all about. And Spaeth had loads of details about Carberry to share with this doubter. Carberry was a professor of psycho ceramics, the study of cracked pots. He had a wife named Laura who was described as ungrammatical, and two daughters, Patricia and Lois. Patricia was a poet and Lois hunted puffins. There was even an assistant in the mix to fill out this story. That was a Truman Grayson who was prone to accidents and being bitten by things that begin with the letter A. This all just sounds like a description from a children's book to me.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, it's all very silly right out of the gate. And clearly this was all just a bit of fun. But unlike the other pranks on today's show, Josiah's story did not fade or blow over. It grew, it became further embellished and it became a 20th century legend. Of course, because of that legendary status, the Carberry story has not only grown, but it has also developed some inconsistencies over the years. For example, his birthday may have been in 1820. His career may have started in 1825. Both of those milestones have at times been attributed instead to that year that the flyer first appeared in University Hall, 1929.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In May of 1929, the school paper reported that Carberry, who at that time was referred to as an expert in Hindo ceramic pottery, was going to the Southwestern Arkansas Normal Institute. As a loner from Brown University, Carberry has had a number of titles attached to his name, but the one that sticks the most is professor of Psycho Ceramics.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, depending on what you look at, you'll see him listed in a variety of different ways. It's usually always related to pottery in some form or another. Over the years, there have been a great many lectures that Josiah S. Carberry was scheduled to deliver, only to have some conflict arise to prevent the presentation. But there has always been a very good reason for such cancellations. Primarily, that reason was his world travels to places allegedly like Turkey, Hawaii or Mongolia that would keep him away.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But travels or no, it seems that Carberry, whose middle name is apparently Stinkney, manages to be ever present at Brown in one way or another. Over the years, his family has produced a great deal of correspondence and placed so many notices about their various doings in the paper that the Providence Journal banned them completely.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, there's apparently a kill order that if the name Carberry comes up, not to run it, like, it's not real.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's like maybe like no more coin hoards, except those are real.

[Holly Fry]

In 1955, Carberry sent a check from his travels abroad in the amount of $101.01. And the accompanying missive indicated that that money was intended to set up a memorial fund for his, quote, future late wife, which should be named not after her, but should be called the Josiah S. Carberry fund. That $101.01 was seed money. In receiving it, the university had to agree to establish a donation drive every Friday the 13th and every leap day of February 29th, where anyone could donate their loose change into brown jugs to add to the fund. That money was to be used to purchase books that the good professor might or might not approve of. It has been used to purchase things. You can find a list of them. The Brown University library site. In 1992, Carberry also wrote a cookbook, the Carberry Cookbook From Nuts to Soup. It includes contributions from other people, but he was the primary editor, and the proceeds of that were also to go to the Carberry Fund. It contained recipes for such delights as Chocolate Icebox Pie, Shrimp in Beer, and Stuffed Camel and Boiled Water.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Chocolate Icebox Pie is a real thing?

[Holly Fry]

Yes. And that came from a contributor, Shrimp and Beer. Is that you can find that recipe online, and it's basically like, dump shrimp in beer, cook it. All right?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So that 1955 donation, the following year, an article titled Josiah S. Carberry, the professor and the Legend appeared in the Brown Daily Herald. And in it, the return address of this famed initial donation to the Carberry fund was exposed as being the New Hampshire State Liquor store. So these Carberry mysteries continue.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, there are so many that we're not gonna list here, but imagine more such things happening over the years. And over the years, Carberry's name has appeared on a number of academic papers, and it has been mentioned in a variety of magazines and newspapers, including the New York Times, which claimed he was the world's greatest traveler. His books have been cited in the footnotes of other books. In 2013, 16 Minutes ran a segment on Carberry. That's right, 16, not 60. It is a very artful spoof of the 60 minute story style produced by the Brown Club of Rhode island and Friends of Brown University Library. And that particular piece is full of very fun Carberry lore, including the information that there have even been allegedly financial concerns over the mysterious faculty member, particularly whether he may have been added to the payroll at some point in time.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 2005, a letter from Carberry appeared in the Brown Daily Herald under the pleading headline Make Me Famous Again, Brown, he relays that he's on a fishing trawler out of Russia, sifting through pottery shards that the crew pulls up while they quest after a mythical whale. But despite a lot of chatter, his real aim really seems to be securing his legacy by making sure that the Carberry sandwich, which at that point has two chicken patties on it, is upgraded with a third patty. They may worry about his fame. He has, incidentally, never been photographed with his face visible.

[Holly Fry]

Carberry, it appears, is either immortal or merely blessed with both longevity and vitality. It seems like as long as his name lives on, it's going to stay that way.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Before we jump into our next story, which is a very ambitious prank, we will take a break and have a word from our sponsors.

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What if Mind Control is real?

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If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have?

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[Holly Fry]

When you look at your car, you're.

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Going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.

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Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you?

[Holly Fry]

I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

So a quick note on the dates here. Write ups about this from the 1840s have put this hoax as happening in the year 1809. You'll see that repeated a lot. But searching through newspaper archives online, all the contemporary write ups about it are from 1810.

[Holly Fry]

And the architect of this whole thing was a man named Theodore Edward Hook. Hook was born on September 22, 1788, so he was 22 at the time of the Berner street hoax. His father was composer James Hook, and Theodore was the second son born to James and his first wife. Theodore's brother James was 18 years old when Theodore was born and their mother died when Theodore was still fairly young. Some accounts place her death in 1802. That means he would have been right around 14. He was sent to a seminary school while he was still a boy, but he was very precocious there. At one point it was discovered he had skipped three full weeks of school. And although he eventually found that he really enjoyed writing, he never really did like school, no matter which one he went to and wrote later in his life. Quote My school life was not a happy one. I was idle and careless of my tasks. I had no aptitude for learning languages. I hated Greek and absolutely shuddered at Hebrew. I fancied myself a genius and anything that could be done in a hurry I did tolerably well. But application I had not.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Even when his father arranged for Theodore to attend Oxford with the intent that he would become a lawyer, Theodore almost tanked the whole thing by making jokes during the entrance ceremony that infuriated the Chancellor. This was more or less how he conducted his life and he became a well known writer and wit, as writer J. Murray put it in 1843, quote, he carried the spirit of rebellious frolic with him. And we're giving you all this biographical information to set up who the sort of person was who would pull this particular type of involved prank. In the book the Lives of Wits and humorists, written in 1862, author John Timbs put it this way. Quote, Sheridan, as we have seen in the present volume, had a great taste. We may Say, constructive skill in hoaxing. But he is far exceeded by Hook. He was known to do things like order a coach with a friend and then stage a fight as they got close to their destination. So then he would jump out of the coach and leave his friend to pay the fare. He did a lot of fare dumping as jokes.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, I don't think. I don't think that's so funny.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Right, let's stick your friends with the bill as a joke. Over and over.

[Holly Fry]

He did a lot of that, you know, humor. Subjective. One day in November, 1810, hook, it said, was strolling down Berner street with a friend and noticed a house which is described in accounts as, quote, particularly neat and modest in appearance. It belonged to a shopkeeper's widow. And for some reason, Hook got an idea, and he is said to have turned to his friend and said, quote, I lay you a guinea that in one week that nice, quiet dwelling shall be the most famous in all London.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

When his friend took the bet, Hook went into action to make sure he would win it. Over the next four or five days, Thomas Hook wrote a thousand pieces of correspondence. These were orders to all manner of tradesmen stating the need for services, all of them to be scheduled on November 27, and all in a short period of hours. Some were written to public officials and socially prominent Londoners requesting that they call on the address on the morning of November 27, all on some important matter or another, depending on what Hook thought would most entice the recipient to show up. For example, one note which was reported in the papers, read, quote, Mrs. Tottenham requests Mr. Blank will call upon her at 2 tomorrow as she wishes to consult him about the sale of an estate.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, presumably those names were left out so that people would not be harangued for having fallen for this very silly prank. Uh, and in addition to sending all of those missives out, Hook rented a room across the street from Mrs. Tottenham's and sat with two of his friends watching the whole thing play out.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

There are some inconsistencies with this story right out of the gate because Hook himself wrote about it, but it's not known what degree of license he took with the material. In his version, for example, he says that this happened in 1809, and he indicated that he and his friends had worked out the plan over a longer period than just a week. But the question that never gets answered in any account is why Hook selected that particular house. There's been some speculation that he had some kind of disagreement with Mrs. Tottenham or that one of his friends did. But there's also precedent in his behavior. That he just did a lot of things with no specific motivation at all. It's entirely possible that he saw what looked like the most boring house on the street. And he decided that was a challenge.

[Holly Fry]

Now, we mentioned at the beginning of this story that this shut down all passage in the area. And that cannot have been a surprise. Hook knew that the nature of the street layout was going to cause a jam. Because there were not as many connecting points in the city at that time that would allow you to pass through. So According to an 1843 write up of the affair at the time, quote, unquote. Oxford Road was not approachable either from Westminster or Mayfair or the city otherwise than through a complicated series of lanes. It may be feebly and a far off guessed what the crash and jam and tumult of that day was. That's because Berner street kind of connected up to Oxford. It was one of the few connections. And in fact, Hook himself later estimated. That this whole thing had impacted about a quarter of the town.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In short, it was an abysmal mess. The Morning Post ran a story about what had happened the next day. Opening with a line that must surely have delighted Theodore Hook. Quote, the greatest hoax that has ever been heard of in this metropolis. Was yesterday practiced in Berner Street, Oxford Street. The paper describes a dozen deliveries, all arriving at once.

[Holly Fry]

And that's really like the light version. Because this did start first thing in the morning with a chimney sweep. And the woman of the house, Mrs. Tottenham, had not ordered a sweep. And so that person was sent away. And reportedly a dozen more chimney sweeps showed up not long after. And that was just the first of what would be a long line of tradesmen who appeared at the house that day. According to various accounts, coal wagons showed up. Bakers with wedding cakes. Dentists, jewelers, wig makers, midwives. Even an undertaker who had made a custom coffin for the very alive Mrs. Tottenham. Furniture began to arrive, couch after couch, and then organs and even butchers. With massive deliveries of meat that had not actually been ordered. Basically, anything one might order for delivery. Had been ordered by Hook as part of the prank. And it had been ordered in multiples.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The mayor of London, having received what he believed to be a letter regarding a meeting from Mrs. Tottenham, arrived by carriage. Although by that time the street was already clogged with deliveries. And onlookers who had gathered to marvel at all these comings and goings. And often to mock the various trades people who were being turned away from the house. The mayor was taken to the nearby Marboro street police office to get him out of the crowd. To try to contain things. Police officers were posted at the street corners to preemptively turn deliveries away. And it took until the late evening to get the crowd to go home and get the street unjammed.

[Holly Fry]

This all may have seemed like a really funny idea to Hook, but it was actually a big issue for a lot of people. The Quarterly Review wrote about the incident and outlined just how much damage, far beyond mere nuisance, had been done by the prank. Quote, perhaps no assassination, no conspiracy, no royal demise or ministerial revolution of recent times was greater godsend to the newspapers than this audacious piece of mischief. In Hook's own theatrical world, he was instantly suspected, but no sign escaped wither him or his confidants. The affair was beyond that circle, a serious one. Fierce were the growlings of the doctors and surgeons, scores of whom had been cheated of valuable hours. Attorneys, teachers of all kinds, of hairdressers, tailors, popular preachers, parliamentary philanthropists had been alike victimized and were, in their various notes, alike vociferous. But the tangible material damage done was itself no joking matter. There had been an awful smashing of glass, china, harpsichord and coach panels. Many a horse fell, never to rise again. Beer barrels and wine barrels had been overturned and exhausted with impunity Amid the press of countless multitudes. It had been a fine field day for pickpockets. There arose a fervent hue and cry for the detection of the wholesale deceiver and destroyer.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

That write up was written several decades later, and as it indicates, Hook was not immediately identified as the hoaxer. He feigned illness for a couple of weeks and then went to the country under the guise of seeking wellness through fresh air and rest. There was, however, a satirical print that was released in 1810 that hints that people knew it must be Hook's work. There's a speech bubble in the picture that has the mayor saying, oh, this is a pretty hoax, but I'll find it out by Hook or by crook, with the word hook capitalized like it's a proper name.

[Holly Fry]

As the news of this hoax hit the press, similar copycat pranks started popping up around England, and even some in France. And Hook was apparently miffed by the imitators and wrote as much as his autobiographical but fictional Persona, Gilbert Gurney. Intimating that anyone doing the same prank after him was a plagiarist, he later wrote, copy the joke and it ceases to be one. Any fool can imitate an example once set, but for originality of thought and design, I do think that was perfect.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hook, who of course won his bet, does not appear to have been sobered by all the trouble that he caused. After things blew over and he returned from the country, he kept brewing up pranks, including one where he gave a well known actor of the day, Romeo Coates, forged tickets to a lavish party being thrown by the Prince regent. As for Mrs. Tottenham, there's not much information on how she recovered after what must have really just been an exhausting and confusing and infuriating day.

[Holly Fry]

I would have set something on fire. But the third hoax on our list is in fact my favorite, and it is not nearly so stressful to think about as the chaos of Berner Street. And we will get right to it after we hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going. On April 1, 1940, 1957, a short film ran on the BBC current events show Panorama. Titled Spaghetti Harvest in Ticino. It explains how the early spring had resulted in, quote, an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop in Ticino, Switzerland, which is right on the border with Italy. According to the segment, which ran less than three minutes, quote, the last two weeks of March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer. There's always the chance of a late frost, which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This informative piece continues explaining that Swiss efforts at growing spaghetti are quite small compared to Italian spaghetti agriculture, and it makes references to the vast spaghetti plantations in the Po Valley of Italy. All of this information is conveyed via a voiceover as the camera pans over these idyllic scenes of women harvesting spaghetti from the trees that the spaghetti dangles from the branches before it's plucked. The pesky spaghetti weevil, according to the narration, has disappeared and that has led to a bumper harvest. The freshly picked spaghetti is so beautifully uniform, we're told, thanks to careful cultivation by skilled growers over a period of years.

[Holly Fry]

And the voiceover of this short film was Richard Dimbleby, the host of Panorama, and he is earnest in his delivery throughout. It is very convincing. When Michael Peacock, who approved the project, was interviewed about it in 2014, he told the BBC of Dimbleby, quote, he knew perfectly well we were using his authority to make the joke work. He loved the idea.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So were viewers convinced that's really a mixed bag? The phones at the BBC started to ring as soon as the segment finished. Some people seem to want to correct them to explain that spaghetti did not grow on trees. Some viewers clearly did get the joke. There were occasional family arguments that had people calling the network to settle the matter about whether it was real or a hoax. Some people just thought it was in poor taste that a news program would run any sort of fake story. And a handful reportedly wanted to know if there was somewhere they could purchase spaghetti trees. Eventually, somebody had the idea to have the operators at the BBC continue the joke with gullible collars telling people who wanted their own spaghetti tree to place a sprig of spaghetti into a tomato sauce tin and quote, hope for the best.

[Holly Fry]

If I were a kid and I was told that by an operator at the BBC, I would 100% be doing it. This project was so well produced that even the director general of the BBC, Sir Ian Jacob, was momentarily astounded to Lear learned that spaghetti grew on trees. As the story goes. His wife quickly set him straight on that matter, Although they did turn to a reference book, the Encyclopedia Britannica, to settle the matter. It turns out, though there was no entry for spaghetti at that time, the.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Segment and viewers reactions to it really made news around the world. One of the most negative write ups Holly found appeared in Alberta, Canada's Calgary Herald under the headline frightening joke. In this column, writer Jack Steppler takes a very alarmist tone, stating, quote, but what is disturbing is that because Mr. Dimbleby delivered a monstrous hoax straight faced, wrapped it up in plausible sounding discourse about the tribulations of a spaghetti farmer and fortified it with a faked film, a large number of people did take it seriously. He then goes on to say some pretty racist and xenophobic things, Basically along the lines that if Britain's smart and informed public can be fooled by such things, how can less educated people in other countries ever discern truth from fiction, Especially when it's delivered in such a serious manner? He then goes on to compare this prank to the, quote, Hitlerian formula of telling a big enough lie and telling it often enough to be believed. Stepler sort of sums it up in a way that's part people need to be critical thinkers and part trusted news people should never give prank news.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, it struck me as a little startling that he went right for a Hitler comparison. And I'm like, it wasn't like they aired this over and over to try to convince anybody. It was like 2 minutes and 40 seconds once, right?

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And look at the date, right? And they did at the end of.

[Holly Fry]

It, mention like, that's the news from April 1st. So you may be wondering how such a project that ended up being a bit controversial was hatched at a well respected news show. Apparently, during one of the team's meetings earlier that year, they had noticed that April Fool's Day was going to fall on a Monday. That was the day of the week that Panorama aired. And a contract cameraman from Austria named Charles D. Jaeger had the idea. He later claimed it was based on a teacher who used to tell the class that they were so stupid they'd believed that spaghetti grows on trees. He was already scheduled to go on a shoot in Switzerland, so he pitched this as something that they could easily do on the cheap. And so he was given a budget of 100 pounds by the show's editor, Michael Peacock, and off Dieger went.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So this fake harvest required 20 pounds of uncooked spaghetti. So you may hear that he used cooked spaghetti. If you have only ever used dry spaghetti in the box from the grocery store, that may be the only thing that makes sense to you. But there was no way for cooked spaghetti spaghetti to stay off the branches of the trees. It's very slippery. It would just slide off. So they used freshly made but uncooked spaghetti. It was still flexible enough to hang gracefully from the trees, but it had enough surface texture left that it just didn't slide right off of there. But it also meant that it had to be kept just moist enough throughout the chute. So as they prep different angles, they would keep the spaghetti damp between damp cloths.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, if you've ever handled, like, fresh pasta, you know it's got some bendiness to it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah.

[Holly Fry]

But it does pretty quickly start to harden up and not be quite so. So pliable. So.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And it's definitely not like when you try to scoop out your spaghetti that's been cooked and it just slides through your serving utensil.

[Holly Fry]

Yes. Lake Lugano, on the border between Italy and Switzerland was the location for the shoot. And locals were asked to harvest the spaghetti. They also got dressed in, like Swiss national costume. They carefully draped it into wicker baskets like any other harvested tree fruit might be handled. And then they staged a drying setup where these, quote, freshly picked noodles were left in the sun. There is also, of course, a scene at the end of this mini documentary showing the people enjoying their harvest. And that was actually also the cast and crew wrap meal which they filmed to use in the final production once.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The footage was back at the BBC. Producer David Wheeler wrote the script for it. Like Peacock, he credited Richard Dimbleby with being the most valuable asset they had in pulling off this stunt in 2004, he said, quote, he had enough gravitas to float an aircraft carrier.

[Holly Fry]

Although the reaction had been mixed and had perhaps made some of their viewers feel foolish, the people involved have pointed out in several different interviews over the years that this was a time when fresh spaghetti was really only just being introduced to most households in Britain. And really kind of pasta in general. Up to that point, canned spaghetti was kind of the most common way a family of the British Isles might encounter it. So maybe they didn't know where it.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Came from, despite the whole dust up around it. Sir Ian Jacob wrote to Diegor to congratulate him, quote, the spaghetti harvest was a splendid idea, beautifully shot and organized. This item has caused a great deal of delight one way and another over the years.

[Holly Fry]

The hoax has been revisited by the BBC as one of the earliest examples of television pranking. And often coverage of it has included interviews with some of the people involved, some of which we've quoted here. In 2004, when he was interviewed about the prank as like a look back, producer David Wheeler said, quote, we were criticized for doing it, but I had no regrets about it at all. I think it was a good idea for people to be aware they couldn't believe everything they saw on the television and that they ought to adopt a slightly critical attitude to it. And I chose that one because it seemed germane to our lives today.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Well, and having worked on the Internet since, what, 2003 or something like that, and having seen the long arc of companies writing fake April Fool's Day articles and making fake April Fool's Day products, I feel like that's fallen off a little bit. Right. In more recent years, people got kind of tired of it. There's still some places that have, like, their tried and true April Fool's Day event that people seem to still enjoy. But this is an example of that. That's a little earlier than, you know, I imagine it from my own time working for a website.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah. I mean, this is sometimes pointed to as being like the first televised prank.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Mm.

[Holly Fry]

Not everyone in Great Britain had TVs at the time. The estimated viewership was in the millions, though, so it was a significant number of people. But, yeah, it's at that point, maybe they had not come to that idea that, like, we should question things that show up on television. And I will say you can find it online. It's really easy to find this footage. If not for the absurd subject matter, you would 100% believe that it was a documentary. It's filmed so perfectly. Nothing about it reads as campy as at all. It's definitely very much like played as straight as could be. So I suppose if you were not familiar with the production of pasta and you know, maybe had had only been watching that news program for a bit and trusted it completely, maybe I would be. Listen, if there were a spaghetti tree, I'd buy it. Spaghetti squash is good, but not quite as delicious. I'd be in.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd like to send us a note, our email address is historypodcastheartradio.com and you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.