Your parents might have told you that money doesn’t grow on trees, but what about spaghetti? Let’s dive into some of the most unbelievable hoaxes in history, starting with the tale of a spaghetti tree in Switzerland!
On April 1st, 1957, a BBC show called Panorama aired a segment showing a woman picking spaghetti from trees in Switzerland. The broadcast, led by a trusted anchor named Richard Dimbleby, claimed it was a great year for spaghetti because the spaghetti weevil had disappeared. Many viewers realized it was a joke because it aired on April Fool’s Day, but some were fooled and called the BBC to learn how to grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC staff humorously suggested planting a spaghetti sprig in tomato sauce. The hoax was meant to remind people not to believe everything they see on TV.
In 1726, Mary Toft from Surrey, England, claimed to give birth to rabbits. After being startled by a rabbit, she became obsessed with them. She later miscarried and claimed to have given birth to animal parts and dead rabbits. Doctors were sent to investigate, and while some believed her, others were skeptical. It was eventually revealed that Mary had been faking the births with help from accomplices. She confessed after being threatened with surgery and spent some time in jail for fraud.
In 1904, a horse named Clever Hans amazed people by seemingly solving math problems and recognizing colors. His trainer, Wilhelm von Osten, was suspected of trickery, but Hans performed well even without him. It was later discovered by psychologist Oscar Pfungst that Hans was picking up on subtle cues from people around him. The term “Clever Hans” is now used to describe situations where animals or people respond to unintentional signals.
Since 1998, a website has claimed the existence of the Pacific Northwest tree octopus, which supposedly lives in the Olympic National Forest. The site, created by Lyle Zapato, describes the octopus as endangered due to predators like eagles and Sasquatch. While the tree octopus isn’t real, the website is used to teach people how to identify credible sources online.
During World War II, British officer Dudley Clark used a lookalike actor, Clifton James, to impersonate General Bernard Montgomery. This was part of Operation Copperhead, intended to confuse the German military about Montgomery’s location. While it’s unclear if the hoax had a significant impact, it was an elaborate attempt to mislead the enemy.
In 1985, Sports Illustrated published a story about Sid Finch, a fictional baseball player who could throw a 168-mile-per-hour fastball. The article, written by George Plimpton, described Finch as a mysterious figure who wore one hiking boot while pitching. Many readers believed the story until they realized it was an April Fool’s joke. The article cleverly hinted at the hoax with its subtitle, but it fooled many people before the truth came out.
These hoaxes remind us to question what we see and hear, especially on April Fool’s Day! Have you heard of any other interesting hoaxes? Let us know!
Imagine you are a journalist in the 1950s. Create your own hoax story similar to the spaghetti tree. Write a short article about it, including details that make it believable. Share it with your classmates and see if they can spot the hoax!
Research a popular myth or urban legend. Create a presentation explaining the myth and the truth behind it. Use evidence to debunk the myth and present your findings to the class.
Gather a collection of news articles, some real and some fake. Work in groups to analyze the articles and determine which ones are hoaxes. Discuss the clues that helped you identify the fake news.
Reenact the investigation of Mary Toft’s rabbit births. Assign roles such as Mary, doctors, and skeptics. Perform a short skit showing how the investigation unfolded and how the truth was eventually revealed.
Design a poster or digital campaign to raise awareness about hoaxes and the importance of critical thinking. Include tips on how to identify hoaxes and why it’s important to verify information.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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Your parents always told you that money doesn’t grow on trees, but what about spaghetti? Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, and this is The List Show. Today, we’re going to talk about some of the most unbelievable hoaxes in history, starting with the twisted tale of a pasta perennial that grows in Switzerland. Let’s get started!
On April 1st, 1957, a BBC current events show called Panorama aired a segment that showed a woman picking spaghetti strands from trees in Switzerland. The pasta was collected in wicker baskets and laid out to dry in the warm Alpine sun. In the words of the broadcast, the anchor, a solemn and trusted public figure named Richard Dimbleby, discussed how it had been a banner year for the crop thanks to the disappearance of the dreaded spaghetti weevil.
Of course, most people knew the idea was absurd and noted the April 1st air date, but enough viewers were fooled that the BBC received a number of calls about the spaghetti tree, including inquiries about how to grow one. The prepared staff answering the phone supposedly instructed callers to plant a spaghetti sprig in a can of tomato sauce and hope for the best. When the hoax was eventually revealed, the BBC faced criticism for duping trusting people, but they clearly didn’t regret it. The BBC now has a long history of airing rather convincing April Fool’s Day stories. In 2004, the segment’s original scriptwriter, David Wheeler, reported that he wasn’t sorry, saying it was a good idea for people to be aware that they couldn’t believe everything they saw on television and that they ought to adopt a slightly critical attitude toward it.
We can’t write a show about hoaxes without mentioning Mary Toft, or Tofts, as her name was originally seen in the records. In April 1726, Toft was working in a field in Surrey, England, when she was startled by a rabbit. Thinking it would make a great meal for her family, she tried to catch it but failed. The incident caused her to become obsessed with rabbits, and for the next three months, she supposedly thought of nothing but eating them. Sadly, in August, she miscarried a baby, and then in September, she miscarried a cat, a rabbit’s head, the legs of another cat, and nine dead baby bunnies.
As Mary’s improbable births continued over a number of days, word began to spread all the way to London that something strange was going on in Surrey. The king even sent doctors to investigate this odd phenomenon. After studying the rabbit’s internal organs, one of the doctors noted that there was no way their lungs could have developed while inside of Mary. He also discovered that another rabbit had hay and corn in its excrement. Suffice it to say, not many mothers are capable of growing crops in their wombs, but other doctors were completely fooled, believing that Mary suffered from a case of maternal impression. At the time, maternal impression was a not uncommon theory that mothers could influence the development of a baby with their thoughts and fears. So when Mary was startled by the rabbit, the doctor reasoned her thoughts caused the unusual bunny births.
Eventually, it came to light that Mary and a few accomplices were manually inserting the rabbits into her body, where they stayed for weeks before the miraculous births. She even bribed visitors to smuggle her animal parts while she was being closely watched by doctors. Mary eventually confessed after being told she would have to undergo a painful surgery to get to the bottom of the problem. It was probably best that her hoax came to an end when it did, as birthing dead rabbits had caused quite the infection, making Mary very ill. She spent a few months in jail for fraud, but after that, it seems she lived a pretty quiet existence for another 40 years.
Mr. Ed had nothing on Clever Hans. In 1904, people worldwide were captivated by a horse who could seemingly perform math equations, tell time, recognize colors, identify composers by listening to music, and perform a number of other mind-boggling tricks. It already sounds like a hoax, doesn’t it? Scientists, veterinarians, and psychologists of the day all thought so too. Clever Hans was exhibited by his trainer, a math teacher named Wilhelm von Osten, so of course, people suspected him of somehow providing Hans with the correct answers. Hans was tested thoroughly by a number of researchers, and none of them could figure out the trick. Hans was successful again and again, even when von Osten wasn’t anywhere near him and even with people the horse had never met before.
Eventually, folks were forced to conclude that some animals are able to think like humans. It wasn’t until 1907 that biologist and psychologist Oscar Pfungst cracked the code. After observing and testing Hans, Pfungst noted that the horse was rarely correct if his questioner didn’t also know the answer. Further examinations showed that Hans couldn’t answer if his questioner wasn’t visible to him. The conclusion? Hans didn’t know the answers, but he was so in tune with the microscopic facial reactions and cues of his questioners that he was able to react in the way they were expecting him to, stamping his hoof on the ground the correct number of times. Today, the term “Clever Hans” is still used by behavioral researchers to refer to the risk of accidentally providing cues to a research subject.
It might not be entirely fair to call the poor horse a hoax; Clever Hans really was clever. It takes quite an intelligent animal to be able to intuit such minute details in the faces of so many different humans, but Hans wasn’t communicating on the level that people had been led to believe he was, and so they became disenchanted with the trick rather quickly after it was exposed.
The next time you find yourself in the Olympic National Forest in Washington, avert your eyes from the deer and elk and look up instead. You might just catch a glimpse of the elusive Pacific Northwest tree octopus. At least, that’s what a website created by Lyle Zapato has been telling people since 1998. The website, which is still live, is dedicated to saving the endangered Pacific Northwest tree octopus from extinction. The site reports that although the tree octopus prefers to live in water, the damp conditions of the Olympic National Forest are perfect for octopuses to roam along the branches. Sadly, the tree octopus has many natural predators that lead to their dwindling numbers, including house cats, bald eagles, and even Sasquatch. Also contributing to its endangered status is the fact that loggers regard tree octopus sightings as bad luck, so they often kill them on site.
What can you do to help the species survive? Write to your representatives, place the tentacle ribbon on social media, and boycott companies that use unsafe wood harvesting practices. Of course, there is no tree octopus, but the website is so convincing, with sections for sightings, links to real octopus research, and more, that plenty of people fall for it. The site is often used today to help students understand how to discern credible internet sources from misinformation. But why did Zapato perpetrate such an elaborate internet hoax? Well, he maintains that the Pacific Northwest tree octopus is real.
It turns out even the military turns to Hollywood for inspiration sometimes. British Army officer Dudley Clark was inspired by the film “Five Graves to Cairo” to execute Operation Copperhead, one of the most infamous military hoaxes of all time. First, you have to know a little bit about General Bernard Montgomery during World War II. Montgomery was a high-ranking British commander, so the German military was closely monitoring his movements to try to predict where an invasion would happen. Dudley Clark scouted Clifton James, an actor who looked similar to Montgomery, and hired him to make random appearances from Gibraltar to Algiers, keeping the real general’s whereabouts top secret. James hung out with future Oscar winner David Niven and even spent time with Montgomery to learn his mannerisms.
While James was making his rounds, Allied intelligence was planting false information among the enemy. Rumor has it that Operation Copperhead ended when James was seen carousing around Algiers, something the real Montgomery would never have done. So, did the hoax work? Well, we’re not really sure. Some think the outlandish trick was crucial to winning the war because it successfully confused Hitler. Although he was apparently aware that Allied Forces had some diversionary tricks up their sleeves, this line of thinking goes, he got the particular strategy wrong. Hitler believed General Montgomery had been cited in Algiers, a whole continent away. When he got word about the upcoming Normandy invasion, he believed it was just a diversion to pull his attention away from the real attacks.
Of course, we know that Montgomery was at Normandy, and the rest is history. Again, most World War II historians think the elaborate ruse amounted to a whole lot of nothing. Maybe the real hoax was the friends we made along the way.
Have you ever heard the one about a Major League Baseball player and Buddhist monk who can throw a 168-mile-per-hour fastball and play the French horn as well as he pitches? If so, you’ve probably read the tale of Sid Finch, the mysterious New York Mets recruit who had the sports world buzzing in 1985. Finch was the subject of a 13-page feature in Sports Illustrated, written by acclaimed journalist George Plimpton, the co-founder of The Paris Review. It was partially Plimpton’s credibility that led readers to accept the outlandish tale he wrote about the baseball phenom.
The article claimed that Finch wore a single hiking boot when he pitched, leaving the other foot bare. The pitcher, according to Plimpton’s telling, mostly lived abroad except for a brief stint at Harvard. He was orphaned at a young age when his archaeologist father died in a plane crash in Nepal. The piece was accompanied by photos of Sid and quotes from people like Mel Stottlemeyer, the Mets’ actual pitching coach. Sports Illustrated received more than 2,000 inquiries from readers who had not noticed the date on the front of the magazine—April 1st. With the Mets’ cooperation on quotes and photos, they let the elaborate hoax play out for two weeks, even reporting that Finch had gone missing after the intense media spotlight.
Eagle-eyed readers would have known it was a hoax from the start because Plimpton left them a clue. The subtitle read, “He’s a pitcher, part Yogi and part recluse, impressively liberated from his opulent lifestyle since deciding about yoga and his future in baseball.”
Did we leave out any good hoaxes? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time!
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This version removes any inappropriate language and maintains a professional tone while preserving the essence of the original content.
Hoax – A deliberate trick or deception intended to mislead people. – In history class, we learned about the famous hoax where people were convinced that a giant had been unearthed in New York.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – Our history teacher explained how the Industrial Revolution changed the way people lived and worked.
Spaghetti – A type of pasta made in long, thin strands. – During our lesson on Italian culture, we discussed how spaghetti became a staple food in Italy and its historical significance.
Believe – To accept something as true or real. – It is important to believe in credible sources when studying historical events to ensure accuracy.
Skeptical – Having doubts or reservations about something. – The students were skeptical about the story of the Trojan Horse until they examined the archaeological evidence.
Credible – Worthy of belief or confidence; trustworthy. – Historians rely on credible sources to piece together accurate accounts of the past.
Sources – Documents or references that provide information or evidence. – When writing a report on ancient Egypt, we used various sources, including books and online articles.
Critical – Involving careful judgment or evaluation. – Critical thinking is essential when analyzing historical documents to understand different perspectives.
Thinking – The process of considering or reasoning about something. – Thinking about the causes and effects of World War II helped the students understand its impact on modern history.
Fraud – Wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain. – The museum’s exhibit on art fraud showed how some paintings were falsely attributed to famous artists.
