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Spaghetti-tree Hoax
The spaghetti-tree hoax was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC current-affairs programme ''Panorama'', purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree". At the time of the report's broadcast, spaghetti was relatively unknown in the United Kingdom, and a number of viewers contacted the BBC afterwards for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees. Decades later, CNN called this broadcast "the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled". Broadcast The news report was produced as an April Fools' Day joke in 1957, and presented a family in the canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland gathering a bumper spaghetti harvest after a mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil". Footage of a traditional "Harvest Festival" was aired along with a discussion of the breeding necessary to develop a strain to produce the perfect length of spaghetti. Some scenes were fi ...
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Sunny April Morning Spaghetti Tree Harvest (7036208493)
Sunny may refer to: People * Sunny (name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Sunny (singer), member of Girls' Generation * Sunny (wrestler), WWE Hall of fame wrestler * Sun Diego, German rapper * Sunny, of Sue and Sunny Fictional characters * Sunny (''Omori'') Animals * Sunny (born 2025), a bald eagle offspring of Jackie and Shadow * Sunny (dog), Obama family pet * Bluegill, a fish species also known as a "Sunny" Music * "Sunny" (Bobby Hebb song), 1966 jazz standard * ''Sunny'' (musical), a 1925 Jerome Kern musical * ''Sunny'' (Neil Sedaka album), 1979 * "Sunny" (Morrissey song), 1995 * ''Sunny'' (Towa Tei album), 2011 * "Sunny" (Yorushika song), 2024 * "Sunny", a song by Stereophonics on their 2015 album ''Keep the Village Alive'' * "Sunny", a song by Brockhampton from ''Saturation II'', 2017 Film and television * ''Sunny'' (1930 film), a film adaptation of the musical * ''Sunny'' (1941 film), a film adaptation of the musical * '' ...
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The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph and Courier''. ''The Telegraph'' is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", was included in its emblem which was used for over a century starting in 1858. In 2013, ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Sunday Telegraph'', which started in 1961, were merged, although the latter retains its own editor. It is politically conservative and supports the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party. It was moderately Liberalism, liberal politically before the late 1870s.Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalismp 159 ''The Telegraph'' has had a number of news scoops, including the outbreak of World War II by rookie reporter Clare Hollingworth, desc ...
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1957 In British Television
Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricket), dismissed for having handled the ball, in Test cricket. * January 9 – British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns. * January 10 – Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. * January 11 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar. * January 14 – Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher), after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars. * January 15 – The film ''Throne of Blood'', Akira Kurosawa's reworking of ''Macbeth'', is released in Japan. * January 20 ** Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (captured from Egypt on October 29, 1956). * January 26 – The Ibirapuera Planetarium (the first in the Southern Hemisphere) is inaugurated in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. F ...
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Mockumentaries
A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues in a satirical way by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. The term originated in the 1960s but was popularized in the mid-1990s when ''This Is Spinal Tap'' director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film. While mockumentaries are comedy, comedic, pseudo-documentary, pseudo-documentaries are their dramatic equivalents. However, pseudo-documentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Nor should either of those be confused with docufiction, a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements. Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documenta ...
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1957 In The United Kingdom
Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricket), dismissed for having handled the ball, in Test cricket. * January 9 – British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigns. * January 10 – Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. * January 11 – The African Convention is founded in Dakar. * January 14 – Kripalu Maharaj is named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher), after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars. * January 15 – The film ''Throne of Blood'', Akira Kurosawa's reworking of ''Macbeth'', is released in Japan. * January 20 ** Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (captured from Egypt on October 29, 1956). * January 26 – The Ibirapuera Planetarium (the first in the Southern Hemisphere) is inaugurated in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. F ...
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Fictional Trees
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, fiction refers to written narratives in prose often specifically novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition and theory Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects a work of fiction to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world, rather than presenting for instance only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the t ...
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BBC Controversies
This article outlines, in chronological order, the various controversies surrounding or involving the BBC. Early years 1926 general strike In 1926, the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called a General Strike to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Labour Party politicians such as party leader Ramsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden criticised the BBC for being "biased" and "misleading the public" during the strike. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin was coached by John Reith during a national broadcast about the strike which he made from Reith's house. When Ramsay MacDonald asked to make a broadcast in reply, Reith supported the request. However, Baldwin was "quite against MacDonald broadcasting" and Reith refused the request. Baldwin's government blocked the BBC from broadcasting statements about the strike by the Labour Party and TUC leaders. When Philip Snowden, the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, ...
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Performance Hoaxes
A performance is an act or process of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Performance has evolved globally, from ancient rituals to modern artistic expressions. Expanding the article with historical and cultural perspectives would improve its scope. Ancient & Classical Theater: Rooted in rituals (Egyptian passion plays, Indigenous storytelling), early performances led to Greek tragedy, Sanskrit drama, and Chinese opera. Medieval & Early Modern Performance: Includes mystery plays in Europe, Commedia dell’arte in Italy, and Kabuki & Noh in Japan. Contemporary & Political Performance: Modern forms include agitprop theater, Forum Theater, and performance art as activism. By highlighting global traditions, the article would better reflect performance as a universal human expression shaped by history and culture. Management science In the ...
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April Fools' Day Jokes
By tradition, in some countries, April 1 or April Fools' Day is marked by practical jokes. Notable practical jokes have appeared on radio and TV stations, newspapers, web sites, and have even been done in large crowds or gatherings. Television * Spaghetti trees: The BBC television programme ''Panorama'' ran a hoax in 1957, purporting to show the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. They claimed that the despised pest, the spaghetti weevil, had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees. It was, in fact, partially filmed in St Albans. The editor of ''Panorama'' at the time, Michael Peacock, approved the idea, which was pitched by freelance camera operator Charles de Jaeger. Peacock told the BBC in 2014 that he gave de Jaeger a budget of £100. Peacock said the respected ''Panorama'' anchorman Richard Dimbleby knew they were using his authoritativeness to make the joke work. He said Dimbleby loved the id ...
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BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service has over 5,500 journalists working across its output including in 50 foreign news bureaus where more than 250 foreign correspondents are stationed. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, th ...
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Mockumentary
A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues in a satirical way by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself. The term originated in the 1960s but was popularized in the mid-1990s when ''This Is Spinal Tap'' director Rob Reiner used it in interviews to describe that film. While mockumentaries are comedy, comedic, pseudo-documentary, pseudo-documentaries are their dramatic equivalents. However, pseudo-documentary should not be confused with docudrama, a fictional genre in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Nor should either of those be confused with docufiction, a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements. Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documenta ...
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Lenin Was A Mushroom
''Lenin was a mushroom'' () was a highly influential televised hoax by Soviet musician Sergey Kuryokhin and reporter Sergey Sholokhov. It was first broadcast on 17 May 1991 on Leningrad Television. Hoax The hoax took the form of an interview on the television program ''Pyatoe Koleso'' (The Fifth Wheel). In the interview, Kuryokhin, impersonating a historian, narrated his supposed findings that Vladimir Lenin consumed large quantities of psychedelic mushrooms and eventually became a mushroom and a radio wave. Kuryokhin arrived at his conclusion through a long series of logical fallacies and appeals to the authority of various "sources" (such as Carlos Castaneda, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky), creating the illusion of a reasoned and plausible logical chain. The timing of the hoax played a large role in its success, coming as it did during the ''glasnost'' period when the ebbing of censorship in the Soviet Union led to many revelations ab ...
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