The 1957 “Spaghetti-Grows-on-Trees” Hoax(openculture.com)
openculture.com
The 1957 “Spaghetti-Grows-on-Trees” Hoax
https://www.openculture.com/2025/11/the-1957-spaghetti-grows-on-trees-hoax.html
37 comments
I love pseudo-documentary and pseudo-newscast movies, ever since I watched Without Warning [0] and had to sleep on my parents' floor because it felt too real for me.
Special Bulletin [1] is another good one.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Without_Warning_(1994_film)
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special_Bulletin&...
Special Bulletin [1] is another good one.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Without_Warning_(1994_film)
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special_Bulletin&...
They did that so well, starting out like a corny live daytime TV-ish thing and slowly ratcheting up the weirdness, taking full advantage of the phase everyone would go through where they were uncertain if it was really live or a hoax.
I doubt you'd get any impression of what it was like then by watching it now, because all the social context is gone, but as a kid at the time it was really scary.
I doubt you'd get any impression of what it was like then by watching it now, because all the social context is gone, but as a kid at the time it was really scary.
Ghostwatch was broadcast on Halloween night. Context is important.
Is that intended as a correction? If so, I said "daytime TV -ish". I meant the initial vibe was similar to the lighthearted fare the BBC and other channels put out during the day at that time, albeit with jokey "spooky" trappings, despite its post-watershed airing. I know it was on late, I watched it "live".
The fact that they were investigating night time paranormal activity even gave them an excuse for airing such seemingly kid-friendly stuff so late in the evening. A lot of parents let their kids stay up for it, including mine.
Shat me right up it did.
The fact that they were investigating night time paranormal activity even gave them an excuse for airing such seemingly kid-friendly stuff so late in the evening. A lot of parents let their kids stay up for it, including mine.
Shat me right up it did.
The podcast Criminal did an episode about Ghostwatch this past Halloween.
https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-338-ghostwatch-10-31-2025
https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-338-ghostwatch-10-31-2025
Channel 5 started in the late nineties. Ghostwatch was pretty weak beer. Alternative 3 is much better and often spookily accurate.
[deleted]
Related:
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34572174 - Jan 2023 (95 comments)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30962453 - April 2022 (1 comment)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25383763 - Dec 2020 (2 comments)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34572174 - Jan 2023 (95 comments)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30962453 - April 2022 (1 comment)
Spaghetti-Tree Hoax - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25383763 - Dec 2020 (2 comments)
In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series, one of the jokes is that in an infinite universe there's no need to manufacture anything. Anything you might want can be found growing naturally somewhere so just go harvest it.
That's ridiculous, everybody knows spaghetti comes from squash.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_squash
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_squash
Feels like a good excuse to share one of my favourite documentaries from my childhood: the North American House Hippo: https://youtu.be/G9hJK4fCq4U?feature=shared
I grew up in the Washington DC area watching WDCA Channel 20, where the legendary and inimitable Dick Dyszel played the second and longest running "Bozo" (who ran live gerbil races), and the more "modern" Spock-eared "Captain 20" on the kid's shows (with the tag line "Live Long and Win Lots of Prizes", who ran live Atari tank battles), and the Dracuesque "Count Gore De Val" on the horror movie show "Creature Feature".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKC6JpqudME&list=PLaJhh0k4dk...
He shot a hilariously cheesy public service announcement that got locked into the scheduling computer and was shown so often, even after he was fired, that it is still burned into my brain: "Hi kids, I'm Captain 20, flying without an airplane, right?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dyszel
http://www.captain20.com/screening.htm (with the original video)
Screening Room
On Sept 2, 1981, Peg Sullivan, who was one of the original liaison people from Taft Broadcasting when they purchased WDCA in 1980, came to me and said that as part of the license commitment, we were going to do a Public Service Announcement about the difference between fantasy and reality on television.
I liked the idea and asked her what she had in mind and when she wanted to shoot it. She said that there was an open spot in the production schedule that afternoon and as far as content went, "It's up to you!"
After thanking her for the advance notice, my mind went back to stories I had heard in my youth about kids being injured by trying to fly like TV's Superman. So, a few hours later, we went into the studio, I had the crew set and light a blue chromakey sweep and take a camera outside into the parking lot. There was no script, but I had in mind what I wanted to say. It took about 20 minutes to set, light and rehearse the spot. We did the first take and it was OK, except that some glare on my shoes "keyed" out and it looked bad. So, I took my shoes off and we did the second and last take. Peggy loved it. Management loved it and it was put into the scheduling computer to begin airing the following week.
The spot ran and ran and ran. The computer was instructed to run the spot on a regular schedule during kid's programming and then whenever there was an additional opening in the schedule. Because it was an important part of the license commitment, it was given a special priority code that could not be easily over-ridden.
The spot continued to run, even after I was fired Memorial Day weekend 1987, because no one knew how to override the code! Eventually they figured it out. But by then it was had run for five and a half years and was certainly the most viewed PSA in the history of the station.
To watch it with a broadband connection, click on the image below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKC6JpqudME&list=PLaJhh0k4dk...
He shot a hilariously cheesy public service announcement that got locked into the scheduling computer and was shown so often, even after he was fired, that it is still burned into my brain: "Hi kids, I'm Captain 20, flying without an airplane, right?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dyszel
http://www.captain20.com/screening.htm (with the original video)
Screening Room
On Sept 2, 1981, Peg Sullivan, who was one of the original liaison people from Taft Broadcasting when they purchased WDCA in 1980, came to me and said that as part of the license commitment, we were going to do a Public Service Announcement about the difference between fantasy and reality on television.
I liked the idea and asked her what she had in mind and when she wanted to shoot it. She said that there was an open spot in the production schedule that afternoon and as far as content went, "It's up to you!"
After thanking her for the advance notice, my mind went back to stories I had heard in my youth about kids being injured by trying to fly like TV's Superman. So, a few hours later, we went into the studio, I had the crew set and light a blue chromakey sweep and take a camera outside into the parking lot. There was no script, but I had in mind what I wanted to say. It took about 20 minutes to set, light and rehearse the spot. We did the first take and it was OK, except that some glare on my shoes "keyed" out and it looked bad. So, I took my shoes off and we did the second and last take. Peggy loved it. Management loved it and it was put into the scheduling computer to begin airing the following week.
The spot ran and ran and ran. The computer was instructed to run the spot on a regular schedule during kid's programming and then whenever there was an additional opening in the schedule. Because it was an important part of the license commitment, it was given a special priority code that could not be easily over-ridden.
The spot continued to run, even after I was fired Memorial Day weekend 1987, because no one knew how to override the code! Eventually they figured it out. But by then it was had run for five and a half years and was certainly the most viewed PSA in the history of the station.
To watch it with a broadband connection, click on the image below.
I saw this on the Jack Paar show in 1957, shortly after the BBC broadcast.
Growing up in an Italian family, of course we knew it wasn't true.
Spaghetti doesn't grow on trees, it comes in bags from the grocery store!
Growing up in an Italian family, of course we knew it wasn't true.
Spaghetti doesn't grow on trees, it comes in bags from the grocery store!
The BBC has been broadcasting hoaxes all my lifetime. I decided to quit paying their licence fee over twenty years ago and have never regretted it.
I love how they didn't come up with a joke and just run with it lazily. They added lots of additional details to make it funnier and more realistic.
There was also the April fool Guardian article about the fictional island of San Serriffe as a new holiday destination
I recently showed this to one of my kids when they asked how spaghetti is made. The hoax continues
I miss British humor. This doesn't seem like something that would ever happen today.
Are you counting the flying penguins documentary?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4#-penguins
It very much happens today, it is just extremely much darker.
Reminds me of a) the breathtaking vox pop done by the BBC [0] in 1978 as metric adoption nipped at their imperial heels, and some spectacularly bewildered misunderstandings manifested -- the first citizen here inventing the word kilomileometres and (I wish she were joking) asserting that your car's mileage is reduced because you'll be using litres,
and b) the comedy radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, running since the 1970's but includes a game called Mornington Crescent [1] (since season 6) wherein the panel take it in turns to 'get to Mornington Crescent' using the London Underground map as a playing board. Many rules and variations are cited and vaguely explained, but it's all just made up -- nonetheless there has been an abundance of people who've listened to this madness, and then written to the BBC to demand a rulebook.
The point? Not sure. Does this reflect positively upon the some style of comedy favoured by the Brits, or negatively about their credulity? As a nominal Brit, I can't comment with any impartiality.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykthWUdkhu0
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)
and b) the comedy radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, running since the 1970's but includes a game called Mornington Crescent [1] (since season 6) wherein the panel take it in turns to 'get to Mornington Crescent' using the London Underground map as a playing board. Many rules and variations are cited and vaguely explained, but it's all just made up -- nonetheless there has been an abundance of people who've listened to this madness, and then written to the BBC to demand a rulebook.
The point? Not sure. Does this reflect positively upon the some style of comedy favoured by the Brits, or negatively about their credulity? As a nominal Brit, I can't comment with any impartiality.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykthWUdkhu0
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_(game)
It is deeply offensive to the serious players of the game to suggest Mornington Crescent is "made up". Yes, to neophytes it can seem random and unstructured but it is preposterous to suggest game with such a lineage is fictional.
Do people still play it now that all the major lines stop at Mornington Crescent? Kids just won’t understand how difficult it was back in the day.
The Mornington Crescent Players Association (MCPA - often lovingly renlffered to as The Scottish Father) unanimously voted through the Flodden amendments last year. The Mornington Crescent Rules Committee (not to be confused with the Rules Committee of Mornington Crescent) will be voting on the topic on December 25th. Whereupon it will be passed to the International Board for ratification.
The only controversial point is it will be applied retroactively over the last decade, changing the results of no less than 3 world championship matches
The only controversial point is it will be applied retroactively over the last decade, changing the results of no less than 3 world championship matches
> Does this reflect positively upon the some style of comedy favoured by the Brits, or negatively about their credulity?
People function by simplistic rules of thumb rather than understanding underlying principles. We all probably do it to some extent, simply because the world is too complex to understand in full. Some people do it to a greater extent.
A good example for the HN crowd is watching people with limited understanding of the technology use a computer or a phone. A lot rely heavily memorised sequences of actions. Put them in front of a slightly different GUI and they effectively have to relearn from scratch. Something as simple as a panel on the side instead of a start men plus taskbar will complete throw people. Now apply the same thinking elsewhere.
People function by simplistic rules of thumb rather than understanding underlying principles. We all probably do it to some extent, simply because the world is too complex to understand in full. Some people do it to a greater extent.
A good example for the HN crowd is watching people with limited understanding of the technology use a computer or a phone. A lot rely heavily memorised sequences of actions. Put them in front of a slightly different GUI and they effectively have to relearn from scratch. Something as simple as a panel on the side instead of a start men plus taskbar will complete throw people. Now apply the same thinking elsewhere.
> The point? Not sure. Does this reflect positively upon the some style of comedy favoured by the Brits, or negatively about their credulity? As a nominal Brit, I can't comment with any impartiality.
You’re just bitter that you never spot the ostrich first.
Prosaically, one step removed: Mornington Crescent absolutely has rules, and the joy of the show is everyone on the show is playing by them.
You’re just bitter that you never spot the ostrich first.
Prosaically, one step removed: Mornington Crescent absolutely has rules, and the joy of the show is everyone on the show is playing by them.
My grandfather was still talking of this in the 90s. A very good joke!
I fell for it. I wasn't born in 1957, but I to this day I remember the picture. I must have seen it in a newspaper when I was around 5. It was before TV. I just accepted the picture as ground truth and it stuck with me for many years.
It came as quite a shock when I discovered as an adult spaghetti was made from flour.
It came as quite a shock when I discovered as an adult spaghetti was made from flour.
No no, you've still got it wrong!
It's made from a flower, a rare but now successfully domesticated flower. The Tu-Tue flower does require extensive processing, sort of like how corn has to be soaked in something, like ashes, to release its nutrients.
Tu-tue requires a similar process, but just as with natives in the new world and corn, ancient Romans simply knew that washing the flowers in a hot-spring near Getti made the final product palitable, without knowing why.
Spa being of course, latin for 'hot wash', thus spa-getti.
Hope this helps.
It's made from a flower, a rare but now successfully domesticated flower. The Tu-Tue flower does require extensive processing, sort of like how corn has to be soaked in something, like ashes, to release its nutrients.
Tu-tue requires a similar process, but just as with natives in the new world and corn, ancient Romans simply knew that washing the flowers in a hot-spring near Getti made the final product palitable, without knowing why.
Spa being of course, latin for 'hot wash', thus spa-getti.
Hope this helps.
Panorama continues to put out false news to this day.
reminds me of the "Lenin was a mushroom" hoax
Yes I came to see the same thing. There was an interesting article recently using the Lenin thing as an example of people not having world models. Spaghetti tree is another good one.
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/in-search-of-ai-psychosis
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/in-search-of-ai-psychosis
I think the "hoax" is itself partly a hoax. It's one of those exaggerated tales, like the Orson Welles War of the Worlds radio play. Supposedly there were thousands of credulous people writing in to inquire more about the spaghetti trees; probably a great many were fully in on the joke and were just dryly "yes-anding", as we say nowadays. Perhaps on behalf of their children, rather like how one would "write a letter" to Father Christmas.
50s Britain wasn't that ignorant of the outside world (especially compared to other 50s countries). There were hundreds of thousands of servicemen who had been in Italy in the war and for the occupation, and the Empire was mostly still around. People knew what spaghetti was.
50s Britain wasn't that ignorant of the outside world (especially compared to other 50s countries). There were hundreds of thousands of servicemen who had been in Italy in the war and for the occupation, and the Empire was mostly still around. People knew what spaghetti was.
The Empire was largely a thing of the past by then, but the recent past.
I wonder whether some people were more familiar with things from former parts of the Empire than they were with European things? There are lots of references to things like Indian food in fiction going back to the 19th century, at least.
I agree the effectiveness of the hoax might well be exaggerated. On the other hand there are always some credulous people.
I wonder whether some people were more familiar with things from former parts of the Empire than they were with European things? There are lots of references to things like Indian food in fiction going back to the 19th century, at least.
I agree the effectiveness of the hoax might well be exaggerated. On the other hand there are always some credulous people.
It's also important to note that there was little alternative programming at the time: just BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV and Channel 4. I can't remember if Channel Five had launched yet, but you get the idea. A significant slice of the UK population was watching.
Also, it's worth mentioning that back then I think significantly more people entertained the idea, if even slightly, that supernatural things loke ghosts could exist. There was many more spoon benders, clairvoyants, spiritualists in mainstream media than today.
Anyhow, the programme starts normal enough but then supernatural things start happening and all hell breaks loose just as the programme ends and the credits start rolling. We're all in shock. It's all we talk about at school the next day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostwatch