How to peel that banana?

Who'd have known that “peeling the banana” ain't just no euphemism but an actual art that could be mastered?

It all started with my image search for yesterday's blog post (in which I used “peeling a banana” as potential euphemism for something more sinister. Click here to read the blog post) when I came across an image on google on peeling a banana.

I clicked on the image that I liked and found it embedded a post in another blog (entitled “Watch people jump”). The post was on how to peel a banana efficiently. The post even had a youtube clip (see below) that explained how to do it.

But before you click on the video below, ask yourself one question. Who would you associate most with a stereotypical love for bananas? If you answered apes or monkeys you be right on the button (however, if you didn't answer that way, what's wrong with you?!).

Watching monkeys peel bananas – and I confess this might not be a popular pastime – and I mean really watching to notice nuances and mannerisms reveals that monkeys peel a banana from the 'other end.' Generally people try to peel a banana from the stalk end (I do the same), monkey's make a tiny incision in the tip and split the skin open! I have tried it this morning and it is amazing in its efficiency – there is absolutely no chance of bruising the tip; even when the banana is soft (no pun or euphemism meant or intended).

Now naturally emulating a monkey's food skills is neither for the faint hearted nor the insecure – while the skill may work and prove fairly easy to take on, most people wouldn't do so purely in the fear of looking foolish among their fellow banana peelers (who might be doing it the way millions of their other brethren are doing it). If Darwin and evolution has taught us one thing, it's that even if man has evolved from moneys, he shouldn't be copying anything from them.

I for one am 'probably' converted and will try and convince people of the merit of copying monkeys when it comes to peeling bananas.

Note, I qualified my conversion as 'probable.' The reason is that while the possibility of ridicule by my peers will not deter me from peeling a banana in a optimal fashion, what will, however, is that I may not remember to peel it that way.

As the original author pointed out in his post that even if something is so “obviously helpful” when a topic is of so little pain to start off with it does not always take root.

So will people who see this video make the change? While some may, a majority will probably not. Why? You could blame it on conditioning, but I think his other explanation gives us a better answer.

“Is it fear of being like the monkeys that is holding back banana-peeling innovation? Is it, in fact, our entrancement with our own evolutionary progress that prevents us from embracing this obvious piece of progress in the peeling of fruit? Does the fear of being looked at like a monkey outweigh the small trace of inconvenience that comes from changing your line of attack?”

Deep stuff this. Change is never easy.