The High 10 Banana Moments in Pop Tradition

Do you bear in mind the place you had been the primary time you heard “Hollaback Lady?” I, for one, was a wee lil fourth grader jamming out in my vibrant purple bed room to a tune I positively mustn’t have been singing at that age. However, it was then and there that I noticed simply how important the yellow fruit was not simply to meals, however to popular culture as effectively. (OK, high quality, I noticed it simply now for the aim of this task, however I am certain I considered it again then too. Perhaps.)

From motion pictures to music and our favourite TV reveals, bananas have proven up in our lives in so some ways. In order a part of our current enthusiastic banana endeavor, we’re looking again in time on the high banana moments—each good and never so good—in recent-ish popular culture. You understand, those which are so burned into our subconsciousness that we consider them each time we choose up a banana on the retailer. Those you already know made this listing! Those we’ll little question inform our grandchildren about while rocking backwards and forwards gently. “In my day, they put pajamas on bananas and raced them down the steps,” and such. You get it! With out additional ado: the definitive banana moments of our time.

10. Bluth’s Unique Frozen Banana Stand from Arrested Improvement

If Arrested Improvement, concerning the banana stand. “There’s all the time cash within the banana stand,” George Bluth Sr. would regularly say to his children. Seems, it wasn’t only a saying; there really was all the time cash within the banana stand—about $250,000 of it that lined the partitions, till it was burned down by his son, Michael Bluth.

9. Andy Warhol’s Banana

What began as an interactive artwork piece for The Velvet Underground’s 1967 album The Velvet Underground and Nico ultimately grew to become one in every of Warhol’s most notable artistic endeavors (and one in the end synonymous with the Pop Artwork motion). The piece was even topped finest album cowl of all time by Billboard in 2023. Quick ahead to at this time, and you may simply discover the artwork plastered on every thing from T-shirts to mock prints—and even our banana highlight’s cowl artwork—additional cementing the banana as an icon. An orange may by no means!!

8. “The Comic” Artwork Set up by Maurizio Cattelan

Miami’s annual Artwork Basel occasion is infamous for attracting all types of artwork. In 2019, the occasion shocked all when an artwork set up merely displaying an precise banana duct-taped to a wall offered for a whopping $120,000—together with two different editions that offered for upwards of $150,000 every. The set up was titled “The Comic” and was the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. It examined how materials objects change into necessary relying on their context whereas additionally poking enjoyable at artwork and capitalism. Efficiency artist David Datuna ended up peeling the banana off the wall and consuming it as a prank. Although onlookers had been shocked, on the finish of the day, it was only a common banana, and the exhibit was changed with one other piece of the fruit, additional proving its absurdity.

7. Slipping on Banana Peels

A comedy trope as previous as time—a lot in order that MythBusters even examined the idea to see how seemingly it’s to slide on one! Plot twist, it’s not, until you’ve obtained an entire lot of bananas littered on the bottom, however that hasn’t stopped anybody from making it into a factor. The bit is believed to have originated within the twentieth century as a Vaudeville act. Vaudeville comic “Sliding” Billy Watson noticed somebody struggling to keep up their steadiness after slipping on a peel, and integrated it into one in every of his reveals. The act later appeared within the silent movie “The Flirt,” and the remaining is historical past. However historical past is completely different from actuality–lmk for those who’ve really ever witnessed somebody slip on a banana peel. In my 29 years, I’ve not.

6. The Savannah Bananas

If there’s one staff I’m all the time rooting for, it’s baseball’s Savannah Bananas. Not essentially to win, however to supply leisure. I’ve but to see them play in particular person, however it’s excessive on my bucket listing. This staff is dedicated to the bit in each means attainable. First off, they play in kilts. Most notably, nonetheless, they carry out choreographed numbers at each recreation, from Mariah Carey to One Course and even songs from Aladdin. That is most likely one in every of my favourite movies from them up to now—the suspense!!—however they all the time discover a strategy to preserve issues attention-grabbing.

5. Bananas in Pyjamas

This Australian youngsters’s tv sequence from the 90s was a basic. Who didn’t love watching these two bananas and their countless shenanigans? OK, possibly we didn’t love watching them—they did skew scary generally—however their theme tune was catchy and the present was, effectively, bananas.

4. Britney (and Banana) on the 2001 VMAs

Whereas performing her hit “I’m a Slave 4 U,” the singer emerged on stage with an albino Burmese python named Banana wrapped round her. It was a daring transfer not seen by many, if any, performers earlier than, and Spears mirrored on it in her current memoir:

In my head I used to be saying, Simply carry out, simply use your legs and carry out. However what no person is aware of is that as I used to be singing, the snake introduced its head proper round to my face, proper as much as me, and began hissing,” Spears writes. “I used to be pondering, Are you f—ing critical proper now? The f—ing goddamn snake’s tongue is flicking out at me. Proper. Now. Lastly, I obtained to the half the place I handed it again, thank God.

3. The Banana Boat Scene in Jaws

Cue the dramatic music! You understand, the one which instantly makes you consider a shark swimming as much as you within the ocean?? On this scene from the fourth installment of the Jaws motion pictures, a bunch of beachgoers is seen atop a banana boat when a shark out of the blue begins swimming in the direction of them, ultimately biting the leg of a girl and pulling her off the boat. Okay, so possibly we’re not desirous to hop on a banana boat anytime quickly after watching this, however for those who pause the film proper earlier than issues take a flip, it doesn’t seem like such a foul time!!

2. “The Identify Sport” by Shirley Ellis

This tune originated as a rhyming recreation that makes it simple to rhyme to virtually any identify—however you most likely understand it most as a strategy to rhyme the identify Hannah with banana. What number of mother and father raised their Hannahs by singing this tune to them? Actually, do you actually have a daughter named Hannah for those who didn’t sing this tune to them at the very least as soon as a day?

1. “Hollaback Lady”

Should you did not know learn how to spell bananas, Gwen Stefani modified that within the 12 months 2004. I used to be a mere elementary faculty lady when this tune got here out, however that didn’t cease me from belting the lyrics on the high of my lungs. The entire thing was generation-defining hit: The singer’s music video featured a high-school theme, and this a part of the tune noticed a cheerleading squad decked out in banana-themed uniforms spelling out the identify of the fruit with indicators. It made me need to audition for the cheer squad, which I by no means did get round to, however I did use the inspiration to put on a cheerleader Halloween costume that 12 months.