Mangesh & Jason
19 Banana Facts to Celebrate Our New Office Eel (Whose Name Is Banana, So It Makes Sense)
by Mangesh & Jason - November 9, 2011 - 12:16 PM

We came into the New York office this morning and had a new pet! Meet Banana, the office eel.

1. As any banana aficionado knows, a bunch of bananas is called a hand; individual bananas are called fingers.

2. In recorded history, bananas date back to around 600 B.C., when they were mentioned in Buddhist texts.

3. Bananas came to the Americas in the 15th century but weren’t regularly imported to the United States until later, following their showcase at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.

4. On average, American consumers eat 30 pounds of bananas a year.

5. Banana peels have been a staple of slapstick slip-and-fall gags for decades, but in the 1960s, many people tried using them for a different purpose—to get high. Rumors that smoking dried banana peels caused hallucinogenic effects were likely started in part by singer Country Joe McDonald, who mistakenly attributed an acid trip to a banana-peel joint he’d tried. Regardless, the trippy allegations touched off a banana run on fruit stands across the country, until an FDA investigation found no evidence to support the claim.

6. Several films have used the familiar yellow fruit in their titles, including Herbie Goes Bananas and Banana Joe. But perhaps the most notable is Bananas, Woody Allen’s 1971 banana republic–themed political satire.

7. Of course, Allen reportedly only named the movie Bananas because “there are no bananas in it.”

8. Whether that’s true or not, it was probably a wiser choice than the movie’s original title, El Weirdo.

banana-splits.jpg

9. Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky were the Saturday morning TV quartet collectively known as The Banana Splits. Their infectiously happy “Tra La La Song” hit the U.S. singles chart back in 1969.

10. Because they’re a major source of potassium, vitamin C, and other nutrients, bananas are believed to aid in the treatment of morning sickness and hangovers.

11. Like money, bananas don’t grow on trees. They grow on plants. Unlike money, they’re members of the same family as Manila hemp.

12. Bats help bananas pollinate and spread banana seeds in the wild.

13. The next time you’re at a sports bar, lay off the Budweiser and ask the bartender if there’s any Banana Wine on tap. Despite the fancy-pants name, this East African booze definitely doesn’t need a corkscrew. The banana booze tastes more like beer than anything from Grandma’s cellar.

14. That luscious yellow fruit isn’t the only edible part of the banana plant. In fact, the banana flower often finds its way into soups and curries in Southeast Asia, while the succulent core of the plant’s trunk is sometimes used in Burmese and Bengali cuisine. Even the leaves can be handy in the kitchen—they’re often used to wrap food while it’s being steamed.

15. The United States imports an estimated 4 million tons of bananas a year.

16. Rev. Canaan Banana became Zimbabwe’s first black president in 1980. Despite his lovable name, his rule was plagued with scandals.

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17. From Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat Song” to the Velvet Underground’s iconic Andy Warhol cover art, it’s become clear that embracing bananas equals big record sales.

18. The Japanese art punk band Melt Banana has clearly taken the idea to its logical extreme. Here’s hoping they last longer than Bananarama.

19. As a kid, Lucille Ball was fired from a drugstore for forgetting to put bananas in a banana split.

This article was written by Jeff Fleischer and Mangesh Hattikudur, and originally appeared in the July-August 2006 issue of mental_floss magazine.

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Comments (34)

  1. Is it just me, or did the title imply that this was replacing the old office eel?

    posted by Betsy on 11-9-2011 at 12:36 pm

  2. Most bananas sold for consumption are Cavendish bananas, and gained prominence after Panama disease ravaged crops of the Gros Michael strain in the 1950s.

    And since cultivated bananas are spread by conventional vegetative reproduction rather than through sexual reproduction, the Cavendish plants are genetically identical and cannot evolve disease resistance….so they could eventually meet the same fate as did the Gros Michael strain.

    -”BB”-

    posted by Bicycle Bill on 11-9-2011 at 12:43 pm

  3. I thought an individual banana was called a banana.

    posted by They Call Me Bruce on 11-9-2011 at 1:37 pm

  4. Honestly I am more curious about the office eel.

    posted by Kelly on 11-9-2011 at 1:44 pm

  5. Banana’s are all radioactive as well. they have a potassium isotope that is radioactive. However, one must consume something like 100,000 bananas before radiation sickness can take hold. Cool eh?

    posted by Dan on 11-9-2011 at 2:00 pm

  6. #20. Although they are both edible, bananas are sweeter than eels.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 11-9-2011 at 2:04 pm

  7. #21: Each banana is a clone.

    In know BB kinda already said so, but I just had to through it in there

    posted by Lola on 11-9-2011 at 2:11 pm

  8. Standard apples (e.g. Granny Smith apples) are also clones; in fact, most things we eat with a homogenous appearance are clones. There is a great documentary about the history of cloning and the associated environmental/social concerns called “The Botany of Desire,” based on a book by Michael Pollan. Pollan is also responsible for the fabulous documentary “Food, Inc.” Thank me later for those references.

    posted by staticage002 on 11-9-2011 at 2:25 pm

  9. I love office pets. We used to have a team hermit crab named “Cartier.” I also worked at a place where a hamster had the run of the office. He’d roll all over the place in his little ball. You’d be working away and out of the corner of your eye see this little guy roll past.

    posted by Decca on 11-9-2011 at 2:27 pm

  10. I’ll suggest a #22: Bananas are naturally radioactive! Completely true.

    posted by Calli Arcale on 11-9-2011 at 2:37 pm

  11. My mother often complained that my father was going to grow a third “hand” because he ate so many bananas.

    posted by Carol W on 11-9-2011 at 2:48 pm

  12. Bananas as we eat them are actually cross-bred or altered genetically to remove or shrink their seeds. As they grow in the wild, bananas have very large black seeds inside of them.
    There is actually more seed than meat in them usually.

    And if you try to eat them like that, it is disgusting. Trust me on this.

    posted by Josiah on 11-9-2011 at 3:13 pm

  13. Yeah let’s hear more about the eel. Maybe a 24 hour webcam so we can watch?! :)

    posted by xanderjones on 11-9-2011 at 3:47 pm

  14. Please call it the, “MentEEL Floss Office Pet Cam.”
    :)

    posted by Helenann on 11-9-2011 at 3:56 pm

  15. As long as we are tossing around random banana related facts: University of California – Santa Cruz’ mascot is the Banana Slug.

    posted by DaveP on 11-9-2011 at 3:58 pm

  16. I agree. I want to hear and see more about Banana the eel! So cute!

    posted by JARED on 11-9-2011 at 5:36 pm

  17. Bananas are technically berries!!!

    posted by Mrs. Cookie on 11-9-2011 at 5:43 pm

  18. Office eel? LUCKY!

    posted by Erik Sass on 11-9-2011 at 5:50 pm

  19. I love Bananas they are so good I know this may seem gross to other but I sometimes eat bananas on a peanut butter sandwich to make it a little sweet.
    Oh nice pic of the eel I can see why you named it Banana.

    posted by KS on 11-9-2011 at 6:05 pm

  20. There’s also Mahoko Yoshimoto, a writer whose pen name was Banana Yoshimoto!

    posted by Alice on 11-9-2011 at 6:38 pm

  21. Yes, yes, more info about the Office Eel? What kind is it?

    posted by Gretchen on 11-9-2011 at 7:50 pm

  22. My eel’s name is Kim Jong Eel.

    posted by skye on 11-9-2011 at 8:48 pm

  23. “Like money, bananas don’t grow on trees. They grow on plants”

    I must have missed the day when I was working on my degree in botany when they covered that trees arent’ plants. Bananas do not grow on trees, they grow on herbaceous perennial plants.

    posted by botanycreek on 11-9-2011 at 9:54 pm

  24. I have always been curious as to why if someone is acting crazy you are saying they are “going bananas” or they are “nuts”. The smoking bananas on lsd kind of makes sense, though when I was a little kids I asked people who had been around way through the 60′s and they said that they just had always heard it that way. I of couse googled it and came up flat.

    posted by Stephen on 11-9-2011 at 11:24 pm

  25. Fact #22. Perhaps the best song ever written about bananas was the Harry Chapin’s 1974 classic “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”. (This is also perhaps the best song ever written about Scranton, Pennsylvania.)

    posted by Mel on 11-10-2011 at 12:40 am

  26. HI, BANANA!

    posted by H on 11-10-2011 at 9:20 am

  27. More on the eel, please! New feature: “Get to know Banana!”

    posted by Megan on 11-10-2011 at 12:34 pm

  28. yes we have no bananas , yes we have no bananas today

    posted by NINA on 11-10-2011 at 1:19 pm

  29. Miss C – sweeter, yes. More delicious? It’s a toss-up. BBQ eel is simply amazing.

    “11. Like money, bananas don’t grow on trees. They grow on plants. Unlike money, they’re members of the same family as Manila hemp.”

    Also like money, there’s always some in the banana stand.

    posted by Bert on 11-10-2011 at 1:58 pm

  30. Here’s a tasty campfire treat…peel one section of the banana peel. Scoop out a row of the banana. Place hershey kisses and marshmellows alternating. Replace peel. Wrap in foil. Stick in the campfire until you have a banana marshmellow chocolate delight.

    posted by Avid Camper on 11-10-2011 at 5:42 pm

  31. I feel better knowing I’m not the only person that forgot to put the banana in the take-out banana split when I was a dumb, easily distracted teenager. I didn’t get fired since my father owned the store and fortunately for customers I didn’t go into the family business…

    posted by Jim on 11-10-2011 at 6:31 pm

  32. So yesterday I had Run, Joey, Run stuck in my head for the rest of the day due to the Joey quiz. Today the theme from the Banana Splits. Thanks so much for that!

    posted by Mary on 11-10-2011 at 7:05 pm

  33. Want to share a banana with 2 friends? Peel it and take a good look. It’s divided into 3 lobes. Kind of like the segments of an orange. With care you can divide it into 3 equal strips.

    BTW when you start to peel it, don’t bend the neck hoping the skin will snap. Go to the other end and pinch it. It will split for easy peeling. Now you have a banana with a handle!

    OT

    posted by Old Tom on 11-14-2011 at 6:50 pm

  34. What about Bananas In Pajamas? I apologize in advance to all those who will now have the song stuck in their heads :-)

    posted by Tricia on 1-27-2012 at 2:43 pm

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