# Are banana peels slippery? What's the origin of this idea? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 15, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885 "2003-04-15T15:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/1 "2003-04-15T15:07:52Z")
Is stepping on a banana peel really slippery? I wondered where this idea came from…? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/2 "2003-04-15T15:13:35Z")
I don’t know the origin of the banana peel cliché, as there are many other slippery things; but yes, banana peels are slippery. I was at a ski area once and there was ice in the parking lot. Near my car was a patch of ice with a banana peel on it. I guess someone wanted to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/3 "2003-04-15T15:52:39Z")
Yes, they are very slippery. I actually fell over on a banana skin once, at a friend’s house. I was amazed, as I never thought they were actually slippery. This was on a concrete patio and I slid a good few feet, I imagine on a nice polished kitchen floor you could skate clear across the room. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/4 "2003-04-15T16:33:18Z")
Banana peels are indeed slippery. More important for comedy writers, the long yellow fruits are obviously bananas and their long yellow peels are obviously banana peels – a very effective visual compared to, for instance, a handful of grapes or a tomato. ---
**Author:** ![vertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3ec8ea/32.png) [@vertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vertigo)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/5 "2003-04-15T18:52:22Z")
As far as where the idea came from, I always assumed that in the days before proper sanitation, it was common that discarded trash and food stuffs would find their way onto the street (dumped from apartment windows above and such). This was probably most common in crowded cities (think NYC turn of the century…, no not this century, the one before). It may have been typical for people to slip on garbage and the banana peel was one of the more slippery suspects. Just a WAG. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/6 "2003-04-15T19:34:22Z")
I had this explained to me by someone who claimed to know the answer – Dean Wallace, Junior, onetime editor of the Cambridge paper **Editorial Humor** (now under new editorship). Gather round, children… According to him, there was a daredevil in New York City, circa the turn of the century – I think he may have been the guy said to have dived from the Brooklyn Bridge. In any event, a man of physical prowess and agility. This worthy, who had braved physical perils (or was, at least, renowned for it) had the misfortune to slip on a banana peel on the street. As Wallace told it, the injury proved more serious than at first thought, then turned fatal. The irony was lost on no one, and so the “slipped on a banana peel” motif found its way into music hall and vaudeville comedy, first as a topical reference, and as a symbol of hubris. Don’t know if it’s true – I haven’t researched it. But it makes a good story. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/7 "2003-04-16T05:22:58Z")
**CalMeachum** is right; it does make for a good story. The man who gained notoriety by claiming to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge was Steve Brodie. He subsequently opened a fashionable tavern in New York, and died in 1901. How he died, though, I don’t know. Researching him on the Net is complicated by the fact that there was a movie actor in the 40s and 50s who used “stever brodie” as his stage name, and there was professional baseball player named W. Scott Brodie who called himself “Steve”. A quick search reveals that Brodie was a young newspaper boy when he made his alleged jump. He was also a printer at the time. And he was a professional bookmaker. I suspect the last account is correct. It appears, at least, to be the one made most often. This may count as a hijack, but is there anyone who knows for sure how Steve Brodie associated with the Brooklyn Bridge died? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/8 "2003-04-16T06:07:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by r\_k \* > \*\*Yes, they are very slippery. I actually fell over on a banana skin once, at a friend’s house. I was amazed, as I never thought they were actually slippery. This was on a concrete patio and I slid a good few feet, I imagine on a nice polished kitchen floor you could skate clear across the room. \*\* Yes, even more slippery. I did it once in grade school. A banana peel on the cafeteria floor. It had a nice high gloss floor. Also for people who always wondered about the banana peel thing. You have to remember that it’s not just a banana peel on the floor. It has to be on the floor in such away that the inside of the peel is making contact with the floor. (Very low coefficient of friction). I also assume, it has to do with the peel being very long. So that when your foot lands on it, there’s less of a chance of any of your shoe making contact with the floor, to stop you from sliding. ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/9 "2003-04-16T13:25:33Z")
There comes to mind a classic cartoon from the late, lamented **Punch** magazine: The scene is a crowded street in Maoist era China–there is a great bustle of people going to and fro dressed in quilted jackets. One of them slips on a banana peal. Off in a corner are two men perusing a copy of The Thoughts of Chariman Mao. Caption: “Wait a minute, I’ll look it up and see if it’s funny.” Maybe you had to be there. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/10 "2003-04-16T13:46:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by slipster \* > \*\* > This may count as a hijack, but is there anyone who knows for sure how Steve Brodie associated with the Brooklyn Bridge died? \*\* [This page](http://ah.bfn.org/h/movie/sandhu/) claims that Brodie died of tuberculosis in 1901. > [@](#): > > At first Brodie’s Buffalo saloon was successful, but soon the novelty of seeing the famous bridge-jumper wore off. Then late in 1900 he contracted tuberculosis and left for the drier climate of San Antonio, where he died on Thursday, 31 January 1901, at the age of 38. He left behind a wife, two daughters, a son, and an estate worth $200,000. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-banana-peels-slippery-whats-the-origin-of-this-idea/168885/11 "2003-04-16T14:12:06Z")
Yeah, but it might not have been Steve Brodie who was the famous daredevil who slipped. I never got the name or particulars from Wallace.