For the last couple of days I haven’t been able to get this phrase, from the 1972 Robert Redford Movie The Hot Rock, out of my head. I picture an American patrol in Afghanistan, carefully inching its way in the dark of night. A sudden movement nearby causes our boys to freeze. The point man whispers “Afghanistan.” “Bananstan,” comes the correct countersign, and our boys breathe a sigh of relief. They have bumped into another American patrol.
That one’s been stuck in my mind too. So has the “Banana Boat” song: “come Mr. Taliban, tally me banana,” and the P.J. O’Roarke-coined epithet “Trashcanistan.” (I guess one could expect to find banana peels in trash cans, so the banana motif still applies)
Many years ago, I saw a performance by the Afghanistan Banana Stand Band.
I tried to find them on the web but their official site is gone…curious.
ROFL, so I wasn’t the only one who was thinking of that movie this week.
I still remember that phrase as a code phrase from an old Maxwell Smart book. It was pretty absurd, but as a teenager I found it hysterical. It also had chain-driven saxophones.