"We hypothesize that the bananas of the 21st century were a different type, one that grew in a wider range of climates. We’re not certain why this breed seem to have randomly fallen from the trees so often, but perhaps it helps explain all these other drawings of inattentive humans slipping on random banana peels as well. … "
… Actually the lore behind banana peel gags is more interesting than you think. They were a super cheap snack in Victorian London and the bananas they had were the gros Michel cultivar which had really thick slippery peels and a lack of general cuture of actually throwing garbage in the bin meant that a lot of them rotted on the street so early comedy stage acts started using them as a gag because slipping on them was a common sometimes life threatening hazard.
But because art borrows from art the banana peel gag outlasted the cultural problem that sparked it by over a century.
I read once on reddit that a dominos pizza guy claims people still occasionally demand the pizza for free since it took more than 30 minutes to arrive.
A promotion that ran for a few months 33 years ago.
And why there are so many pictures of bananas next to things.
"We hypothesize that the bananas of the 21st century were a different type, one that grew in a wider range of climates. We’re not certain why this breed seem to have randomly fallen from the trees so often, but perhaps it helps explain all these other drawings of inattentive humans slipping on random banana peels as well. … "
… Actually the lore behind banana peel gags is more interesting than you think. They were a super cheap snack in Victorian London and the bananas they had were the gros Michel cultivar which had really thick slippery peels and a lack of general cuture of actually throwing garbage in the bin meant that a lot of them rotted on the street so early comedy stage acts started using them as a gag because slipping on them was a common sometimes life threatening hazard.
But because art borrows from art the banana peel gag outlasted the cultural problem that sparked it by over a century.
I read once on reddit that a dominos pizza guy claims people still occasionally demand the pizza for free since it took more than 30 minutes to arrive.
A promotion that ran for a few months 33 years ago.
But immortalized in stuff like the Ninja Turtles movie and various other tv shows. Exactly same principle!
Good lord, that really stuck in our culture.
Never forget
I had no idea about the Gros Michel peels - that’s fascinating!! Thank you for sharing that!