CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's been 24 years since WCNC Charlotte Weather Forecaster Larry Sprinkle made his way out to Carrigan Farms in Mooresville, North Carolina, to get a first-hand look at how that year's marshmallow crop was doing.
That's right, we said marshmallow crop.
THE HISTORY OF THE PRANK
Doug Carrigan, from Carrigan Farms, had called Sprinkle so they could hatch a brilliant April Fools' Day prank.
"He had this idea to kind of tie it together with trees and marshmallows," Sprinkle recalled. "I said that's a great idea."
So, Sprinkle drove up to Carrigan Farms days before April 1 to shoot the "news story."
Carrigan had the farm all prepared for the elaborate prank. He had about five teenagers take about 1,000 marshmallows and perfectly place them in his apple trees.
Sprinkle said Carrigan and his team spent hours making it look as if there was a whole orchard full of marshmallows on the trees.
Carrigan then had his employees pick the marshmallows off of the trees as if they were picking apples.
"So, you take maybe 40 apple trees filled with marshmallows, you put Doug and me in front of those trees, couple guys picking them and it just appeared as if, 'Yeah, marshmallows really do grow on trees, "Sprinkle said.
DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE: Behind the making of the marshmallow prank
THE AFTERMATH
That first year after Sprinkle ran the story, he said a group from up in the mountains rented a charter bus and drove to Mooresville to check out the fake marshmallow crop.
"There were carloads of people, literally came periodically, to see these marshmallows on trees," Sprinkle said. "Call after call into Carrigan Farms … calls and emails into the TV station about this."
Sprinkle was just amazed by the number of adults who really thought marshmallows grew on trees.
"These were adults, these were not kids, who firmly believed," Sprinkle said. "I even had situations where people told me there were arguments among people and families."
For Sprinkle and Carrigan, the response to their silly April Fools' Day prank was much more than they could have ever imagined.
"We were hoping that a few would believe, but when we ran it, the response really has been worldwide," Sprinkle said.
Even though the initial story ran more than 20 years ago, Sprinkle said it's now a tradition for him to air the same story every April 1.
"You know after all these years it's run, now the response we get is people saying, 'is that really true?' Sprinkle said.
For Sprinkle, his favorite part about the whole gag is the amount of effort everyone put into the prank.
"How concentrated we are in explaining it and taking a bite out of it, and the guys who are picking the marshmallows, how they're doing it so seriously as if yeah, that's a real crop of marshmallows," Sprinkle added.
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