Leslie,
What a hoot! Well, uncanny as it may seem, I saw this as a child on American Television over forty years ago, on the Jack Paar show.
Americans were thought to be too familiar with 'spaghetti' (sophisticates all, now, we say 'pasta' instead) to fall for the hoax, so rather than being presented as an April Fools joke, it was presented at the expense of our supposedly clueless UK cousins--"Can you believe they fell for this," etc.
I remember falling over in giggles. My father, who had NO sense of humor, roared with laughter. I would occasionally mention it to people, but no one had ever heard of it--
Thanks for posting!