Many thanks to Chris Keating, who has not only uncovered the long-lost Australian tribute to the BBC's Swiss Spaghetti Harvest hoax, but has posted it on youtube. The date when this was broadcast is still uncertain. Seems to have been in the early to mid-1960s. It aired on Melbourne station HSV-7. The presenter is Dan Webb.
Whereas the BBC's original broadcast described the bumper spaghetti crop that the Swiss were enjoying, the Australian version develops the story further by telling the story of a group of Sicilian farmers who were brought to Australia in the hope of developing the Australian spaghetti industry. Everything went well until their crop was blighted by the dreaded "spag worm":
This year, for the first time, the spaghetti crop has failed. Hundreds of tons of spaghetti hangs ruined on the palermo vines. The reason is a long, needle-like organism called Troglodytes pasta. or spag worm. This seemingly harmless creature does untold damage to the spaghetti vine.
Posted by Canadarm on Mon Feb 16, 2009 at 10:10 AM
I'm getting a "no longer available" error.
Posted by PlantPerson on Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 05:30 AM
When I was a youngster, I saw this (or a redone version of it) on Jack Paar. Funniest thing I ever saw up to then. A night or two later, Paar 'fessed up' that it was a 'hoax'. He admitted that spaghetti wasn't harvested - it was mined! He then ran a brief clip showing spaghetti miners. Too too funny. Thanks for the memory.
Posted by RichmondTom on Wed Feb 18, 2009 at 07:38 AM
i think it is amazing. most of the people are like this.
Posted by Tom Nathan on Wed Nov 24, 2010 at 05:21 AM
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