Going Bananas: The Fruit in Our Language
How one fruit slipped into idioms, slang, and insults worldwide.
Few foods have wormed their way into everyday speech like the banana. A sampling:
English idioms
- “Going bananas” — losing one’s mind with excitement or frustration. Popularized in mid-20th-century American slang, possibly echoing “going ape.”
- “Second banana” — a supporting player or sidekick, from vaudeville, where the “top banana” was the lead comedian.
- “Banana republic” — a politically unstable country dependent on a single export (see our History section).
- “To slip on a banana peel” — shorthand for slapstick misfortune.
Around the world
- In Japanese, calling someone a banana can describe a person seen as “yellow outside, white inside” — a pointed cultural jab.
- In British slang, “bananas” simply means crazy, as in “he’s gone completely bananas.”
- The exclamation “yes, we have no bananas” entered the language via a 1923 novelty song (more on that in the Music section) and became a byword for cheerful absurdity.
Top banana, literally
The vaudeville term endures in show business to this day: the “top banana” is the star. It reputedly comes from a classic burlesque routine involving three comedians and a bunch of bananas — the one who ended up holding the banana was the headliner.