Spaghetti-tree hoax
About eight million people watched the hoax on April Fools' Day in 1957. At the time, spaghetti was rare in the United Kingdom. It was also sometimes considered a delicacy there. The next day, hundreds of people called the BBC to see if spaghetti trees were real and how to grow them. The BBC told callers to put some spaghetti in a can of tomato sauce and "hope for the best".