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Go Bananas

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. (Groucho Marx)

Dear Word Detective: Recently I came across a video doing a parody report on a football game using computer-generated images (don’t ask me how I did; the internet is a strange place). At one point it mentioned the crowd “going bananas,” and then humorously turned the CGI crowd into bananas, except for one guy, who then turned around and freaked out that everyone else had turned into bananas. Anyway, it got me thinking about the origin of that phrase. I searched your website and didn’t find it, so I figured I’d pose the question. Since I don’t know of there being anything inherently crazy about bananas, my intuition was that it’s a variation on “going ape,” but I would like to know the definitive answer (if there is one). — Tom.

Yes, the internet is indeed a strange place, and, coincidentally, it seems to have pretty much demolished the likelihood of finding a definitive answer to anything. It’s like the Tragedy of the Commons in reverse, where, instead of being stripped clean, the Commons has become a ginormous junk shop. Yeah, there’s good stuff in there, but there are no reliable maps and you’re gonna need a very big shovel.

As a first step in getting a grip on this notoriously slippery subject, I think we should start with the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “banana,” which sounds curiously like an advertisement: “The fruit of [the banana tree], growing in clusters of angular, finger-like berries, containing within their rind a luscious and highly nutritious pulp.” “Luscious”? Uh, ok. The word “banana” itself comes from the word for the fruit in a West African language (most likely Wolof). Bananas were first imported into Europe by Portuguese and Spanish explorers in the 16th century.

Of course, the banana itself is a wondrous thing in all its culinary forms; an extended passage near the beginning of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow details a sumptuous banana-based breakfast that includes banana waffles with banana syrup, banana omelets, banana croissants and even fermented banana mead. But bananas have also provided a variety of metaphors and figures of speech. To slip and fall after stepping on a banana peel has been a standard comedy trope at least since the early 20th century. “Banana oil” has meant “nonsense” or “lunacy” since the 1920s (“This is pure banana oil. It is not like you to … gibber.” P.G. Wodehouse, 1927). “Banana Republic,” before it was a mall clothing store, was a derogatory term for a small country, usually in Central America, producing fruit as its primary export. “Banana” was also early 20th century theater slang for a member of a comedy act, usually ranked in importance as “top banana,” “second banana,” etc., said to be drawn from a routine where several comedians attempt to share a single banana. “Top banana,” “second banana,” etc., went on to become slang for ranks in any hierarchical organization (“I almost signed on a few months ago as fifth banana at NewsCenter 4.” 1977).

The origin of “going bananas” or simply “bananas” meaning “insane” is uncertain, but it seems to have first appeared in the mid-20th century. It may well be based on “going ape,” given the legendary enthusiasm of monkeys for bananas, or it might simply employ the bright yellow “banana” as a symbol of silliness and simple-mindedness. My money is on the “go ape” theory, especially given the centrality of monkeys and apes to US popular culture in the 20th century.

9 comments to Go Bananas

  • Tim Sites

    I’ve wondered about the song “Loving You Has Made Me Bananas” written in 1968 by Guy Marks. In the song the term is used in a nonsense manner as in: “Loving You Has Made Me ” in the same manner that most of the other lyrics of this song parody were used. I remember at the time not being aware that the term “bananas” was a slang term for crazy and saw the humor in the song solely from it’s absurdist language, not from any slang meaning. I mention this in that I believe the song lyrics would not have been consistent if the line “Loving You Has Made Me Bananas” simply meant “Loving You Has Made Me Crazy” I believe the line was intended to not make sense and if the term was widely understood to mean “crazy”, the author would have used something different such as “Loving You Has Made Me Grape Jelly”

    Looking at recorded usage of the slang term “Bananas” meaning “Crazy”, it did not begin to become common until the late 60’s, about the time this song was produced. Likewise by the time Woody Allen’s movie “Bananas” came out in 1971, the “crazy” meaning was pretty much universally understood.

    I would not go so far as to suggest this song is the origin of the slang term, but it might have been the catalyst for popularizing it in the late 60’s after falling into disuse. I remember people for a while in response to this song, inserting the word “banana” or “bananas” randomly into their speech to get a laugh.

  • Tim Sites

    Sorry. In the second sentence there is the phrase (in quotes) “Loving You Has Made Me ” which should read “Loving You Has Made Me [insert meaningless non sequitur here]”. I used angle brackets in the original post rather than square brackets and the editor thought they enclosed html tags and thus did not print. Since I can’t edit my previous post, maybe the moderator will do so.

  • Lynne

    I was taught that the saying that someone had “gone bananas” referred to the fact that when a person had mental health issues or a nervous breakdown they would go to an asylum or hospital and were fed bananas because of their positive effects on mental health. Apparently they contain properties known to benefit the mind and body. Therefore someone who had gone bananas was literally being fed bananas to help with such a condition or illness.

  • Jaclyn Koch

    Tim Sites, You have gone bananas to taint your interesting insight with a belly button stare at an editing faux pas. ;)

  • Joseph Oleske

    The earliest mention I could find was in a book, “Heston’s Annals”

    https://books.google.com/books?id=3sw6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=cornelius+hargrave&source=bl&ots=uScvfX6-Bz&sig=081D3_R7oaER7fhD6O7Vh389aOw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwikgKXpvILUAhXKNSYKHVhzAicQ6AEIVDAQ#v=onepage&q=cornelius%20hargrave&f=true

    that records The shipwrecks of the Jersey shore. On the night of March 30, 1903 the Norwegian steamship Brighton struck the shallows near Atlantic City. Her cargo from Port Antonio, in Jamaica, of rum and bananas were released and quickly washed ashore. The effect on residents reportedly made Atlantic City “banana crazy”.

    -Joseph Oleske III

  • Christopher Donzle

    I really enjoyed reading this. It is currently 2017 and still am unable to find a denfinitive answer for this topic. Nevertheless, I had a good laugh reading this post and comments. I don’t know who decided that bananas are mans crazy fruit but I certainly don’t hear folks “going kiwi”. Thank you for the intriguing post and responses!

  • Pam

    My theory as a beekeeper is that when honey bees detect danger they signal with a pheromone that smells like bananas. Their reaction as a colony is to attack which fits the definition of ‘going bananas’ if you are their target. It is recommended not to eat bananas before handling a hive.

  • Mike

    I recall watching Johnny Carson back in the mid-60’s when the drug and psychedelic culture were becoming everyday news. During a monologue one night Carson mentioned that people were beginning to smoke banana peels to get a high. He very often used actual news items to create jokes so I think that it may have been true. Although I forgot what the joke was I do vividly remember that it started a near nightly reference to bananas in some way to poke fun at drug use or some form of demented behavior. After some time it seemed that “bananas” took on a life of its own and I began hearing it everywhere.

    I’m not 100% sure this is where it originated, but it is where I first heard it and watched it develop into a colloquialism.

  • Matt Durham

    “Going ape” to mean going crazy dates back to at least Korea. Military slang has a tendency to get more vulgar pretty quickly, so “going apesh*t” soon followed. It seems to me that “bananas” is just a clever bowdlerization of “apesh*t”. Mystery solved.

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