The Best April Fools' Joke Ever

The Spaghetti Tree. Hands down; nothing has ever beat it, in my opinion. People were taken in, and maybe still are, by the sheer beauty of how this was done. Check it out for yourself, then come back.

http:// www . youtube.com/watch?v=27ugSKW4-QQ (or just go to youtube and enter “spaghetti tree” to click on “Panorama – April Fool’s Day Hoax”). The Brits really know how to do it right.

I’ve done that sort of thing on the radio, but never with the brilliance of this particular filmed bit of foolery. One time, I announced that a local major bridge was operating normally after being stuck in the “open” position earlier that day. Except the bridge was a fixed span and did not open.

One of our less-brainy part-timers came in after I did that and warned me that people might not take the bridge if they knew it had been stuck open. I said, “First, people know the bridge does not open and never did. Second, I said it had happened earlier in the day and everything was working well. Third, most people in this country know it’s April 1.”

During the period when militant Indians were taking over places around the country, for one reason or another, I announced they had taken over the (non-existent) toll booth on the same bridge, but were forced to leave when they discovered it did not have a rest room. I had a lot of fun on those days.