Spaghetti cultivation
In 1957, the BBC Panorama program reported that mild winters meant that Swiss farmers could now grow spaghetti from trees.
At that time, spaghetti was still little known in England and therefore many British people opted for five spaghetti. The Panorama feature is cited by many as the most performed April Fool’s joke of all time.
Watch the joke in the video above!
Color television for all
NRK had also tried various April Fool’s jokes over the years and in 1967 the national broadcaster led many people to believe that darkness could lead to color television.
In the late sixties, color television had not yet arrived in Norway, but the public was told that they could receive color broadcasts by turning off all the lights except one bulb.
Five years earlier, SVT reported that Swedish homes could bring in color by pulling nylon stockings over TV sets.
Free wine – bring a bucket!
In 1950, Aftenposten reported that Vinmonopolet had a large stock of red wines, but too few bottles for all the wines.
The public was urged to bring buckets and bottles to help Vinmonopolet get rid of excess red wine, which caused queues outside some pole outlets.
In 1987, Bergens Tidende deceived alcohol-thirsty Norwegian citizens by claiming that Vinmonopolet had 10,000 liters of smuggled wine that they wanted to dispose of. This again led to many buckles and bottles being taken out of the outlet.
Star power
In 2008, the energy company Statkraft claimed to have developed technology that could extract energy from stars.
A large advertisement was shown on Norwegian TV channels ahead of April 1, before the company revealed the joke to be an April Fool’s joke.
Bjørndalen Belgium
In 2007, Ole Einar Bjørndalen was the world’s best biathlete.
Therefore, it felt something special when he stated that he would represent the simple-skinned country of Belgium for three years in order to make the sport even more popular in the country.
According to Bjørndalen himself, several people liked the joke, including the biathlete’s father.
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