Bananaphone
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| Bananaphone | ||
 |
||
| Studio album by Raffi | ||
| Released | 1994 | |
| Recorded | March–June 1994 | |
| Genre | Children's music | |
| Length | 52:07 | |
| Label | Rounder Records | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Raffi chronology | ||
| Evergreen Everblue (1990) |
Bananaphone (1994) |
Raffi Radio (1997) |
Bananaphone is the name of a children's album, as well as a song by Raffi, released in 1994. The lyrics describe a combination between a banana and a telephone, using many puns ("It's a phone with appeal!") and nonce words like "bananular" and "interactive-odular" as Raffi extols the virtues of his unique telephone. It has become a significant internet meme.
Contents |
[edit] Track listing
- Bananaphone (Creber, Raffi) 3:12
- Shake a Toe (Creber, Raffi) 2:57
- The World We Love (Creber, Raffi) 3:23
- Slow Day (Creber, Raffi) 4:02
- The Changing Garden of Mr. Bell (Hubbard, Silversher) 4:07
- Naturally (Creber, Raffi) 3:04
- Spring Flowers [instrumental] (Raffi) 3:16
- C-A-N-A-D-A (Connors) 3:28
- Michael, Row the Boat Ashore (Traditional) 3:25
- First Peoples (Creber, Raffi) 4:37
- Dee Myth [instrumental] (Raffi) 2:59
- Cowlit Night (Raffi) 3:16
- The Gorilla Song (Knowles, Knowles) 2:10
- Simple Gifts (Traditional) 2:51
- Down by the Riverside (Traditional) 3:13
- The Shmenge Polka [instrumental] (Raffi) 2:07
[edit] "Bananaphone" on the Internet
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"Bananaphone" has seen use in many flash animations which have greatly increased its popularity (arguably being the source of its memetic attention on the Internet to begin with).
[edit] Osakaphone
The song was popularized as the soundtrack for a Flash animation named osakaphone.swf, which features a wiggling Gundam in a banana suit being held by a flashing Shift JIS art rendition of the character Osaka from the manga/anime Azumanga Daioh. The animation first appeared on cookiethievery.com. The picture of Osaka, drawn in a style characteristic of 2channel Shift JIS art, was from the 4chan imageboard, introduced by "Shii". The song used in the Flash is sped up around 40% (raising the pitch about 6 semitones) from the original for humorous effect.
The Osakaphone Flash also features a hidden Easter egg: clicking on the Gundam Bananaphone's face will bring up a spoof of a scene from the short film Rejected, with a boy standing next to a bowl of cereal and complaining that the spoon he's holding (which is about the size of a pitchfork) is too big. Eventually, the Gundam Bananaphone walks up; after a brief pause, it announces "I am a banana", triggering the sound of a vacuum cleaner (somewhat resembling a burst of canned laughter) followed by the "You're Watching The Family Learning Channel" title and a pair of links. "Needs more Osakaphone" will play the Osakaphone Flash again, while "I don't get it" will link users to Bitter Films' website.
The Gundam "Bananaphone" itself has now appeared elsewhere, although this is something of a misnomer since it has no resemblance to a phone outside of the original Flash.
[edit] Badgerphone
Other animations which followed further increased the popularity of the song greatly. A later Flash[1] was made by combining the song from Bananaphone, the visuals from the Flash Badger Badger Badger, and the Gundam "Bananaphone" from osakaphone (featured flying through the sky over the badgers, and singing/colliding into a badger instead of the snake appearing).
[edit] David Teatro's Banana Phone
On May 4th, 2004, David Teatro submitted it to Newgrounds (where "Will" aka "LazyWill" was credited as co-author) [2]. It was a darkly humorous cartoon with horror undertones where one of the characters (seemingly a college student) begins hearing the song repeatedly in his head which eventually drives him crazy to the point of having an aneurysm. The two other roommates panic, and when one of the hapless victim's roommates touches the body, he is inflicted with the same apparent curse, hearing the song as the first character did, and the flash approaches a very violent conclusion. The flash was immensely popular at Newgrounds especially, where it garnered over a million views, won two awards (Daily Feature and Weekly 5th Place), rose to the coveted first place of the top 50 submissions in the Portal for a time, and spawned dozens of fan-submitted tributes and parodies.
It was so well-received that fifteen days later, after countless badgering by fans for a sequel, Dave Teatro pretended to accede to these demands by submitting a prank flash titled Banana Phone 2. The so-called sequel featured the song "Cats on Mars" instead of "Bananaphone" and replaced the three original characters with the avatars of three of his forum members, who murmur "Whassup?" several times before the screen became covered with images of a stuffed toy pig and flashed with red colors, while an extremely discordant sound (with the song "Bananaphone" at a barely audible level) played. Notably, prank flashes like Banana Phone 2 typically get "blammed" (scored low and deleted quickly) at Newgrounds; however, the popularity of the first Banana Phone caused many users to give it high marks before even seeing it. It passed judgement, ensuring its survival on the site, and won a Turd of the Week award (given to the lowest scoring, surviving flash that week). Needless to say, many fans were upset at the deception.
[edit] Banana Phone Film
On January 5th, 2007, Dave Teatro's "Banana Phone" was made into a film by Brian Hsu of kruxialflicks.com. The storyline has been extended including some scenes changed or added. The main idea is still kept. The film can be watched here.
[edit] Banana Phone at GhostalMedia
Other animations also helped the song's popularity, for example, this animation by Patrick Kelleher of GhostalMedia. It was a cartoon of a man dancing in a banana costume to the tune of "Bananaphone" when a passerby comes by and turns the music off. They go back and forth until the flash reaches a semi-violent conclusion.
[edit] Non-flash related popularity on the internet
With its reputation of being an annoyance, references to it are often encountered in social areas of the Internet, including:
- It is shown on many YTMNDs, and in this installment of online comic Nothing Nice to Say
- Malicious users on the virtual world Second Life have been known to attach phantom objects to other users that continuously play the banana phone song.
[edit] Outside the internet
- Outside of the Internet, the sped up version of the song has been used as an audio gag on the Opie & Anthony Show on XM Satellite Radio starting the week of January 31, 2005. Anytime a phone is mentioned during the show, one of the hosts plays this song in an effort to get it stuck in their listeners' heads. The song has also been used on Countdown with Keith Olbermann as a bed for telephone-related news stories.
- The song is a frequent reference on the Dave, Shelly, and Chainsaw radio show, since Dave used it to annoy Bromo while Bromo was trying to record his overnight show.
- In some regions, the song is popular for swing dancing. The sped-up version has a beat that is popular for Balboa dancing. The silliness of the song makes it either loved or detested by dancers.[citation needed]
- Rhonda Vincent covered the song for the Raffi tribute CD, Country Goes Raffi.
- Some companies have begun marketing a banana-shaped cover for cell phones, inspired by the song.
- During rain delays of Cincinnati Reds baseball games the Reds radio announcers Marty Brennaman, Thom Brennaman and Jeff Brantley take phone calls from listeners, which is sponsored by Chiquita Banana. Thus it has been referred to as the "banana phone" for quite some time, going back to the era where Marty Brennaman's on air partner was Joe Nuxhall. In 2004 Brennaman and Nuxhall played the sped up version as an intro to the segment.
- Death metal band Grim Saviour has covered the titular song. [3]
