Alton says no. I think you can put them in a paper bag to hurry it up a bit. Putting them in the fridge slows it down, though.
IIRC
Like KneadToKnow, I’ve had success with putting them in a paper bag – on the counter, NOT the fridge – with an apple. I think it’s ethylene gas or something given off by the apple that causes the banana to ripen more quickly.
Huh? By the time the peel turns black, the inside’s turned mushy, too. Of course, you might LIKE eating mushy bananas - some people do.
But it’s still grrooooddddyyyyy!
And we often give the banana to the animal with the peels on.
And why in hell would you want a banana to ripen FASTER? In my experience, they ripen way too fast anyhow. I try to buy them with a bit of green still on them so I can keep them around for a few days, and they still turn brown before I want to eat them half the time.
BTW, yes, ethylene gas is the mechanism. It’s put out by most ripening fruits, and accelerates the process if the fruit is allowed to sit there and bathe in the stuff, like being placed in a bag. Apples and bananas both put out a lot of it, and will accelerate the ripening of other fruits.
Ethylene gas is denser than air, so you can slow up the process somewhat by hanging the bananas on a hook rather than placing them on a counter. Those “green” bags to preserve freshness supposedly work by being impregnated with something that absorbs the ethylene.
“P.S. - Fck pears!!*”
Not after an hour in the fridge, like the person I was responding to claimed, though.
Sorry, I forgot about the no hyperbole rule in GQ. 
The banana is The Atheist’s Nightmare:
So the banana was given to us by God himself, in the form that it currently exists. I guess it wasn’t domesticated after all.
By the way, the Scientific American podcast Science Talk from last week was all about the banana. Apparently, the ubiquitous variety we see today is the Cavendish, which was far inferior to one that existed several decades ago but was wiped out by a fungus. That other variety must have caused atheists to drop dead!
Bananas are the perfect food if you are feeling nauseated, because they taste good going down, and they taste good coming up.
David Duke?
Or a handle, depending upon your preference.
They’re useless in a rucksack though, unless you invest in one of these.
Colophon (atheist and musaphile).
I might just call them up right now on my bananaphone and buy one of those!
ring ring ring ring ring
The ones I have all point the wrong way.
Try turning them around.
Keeping the banana’s orientation the same (use a compass if necessary), execute a brisk about-turn and you’ll find the problem solves itself. You may need to sit the other side of the breakfast table (if you have a breakfast bar, I guess you’re screwed).
So the most perfect fruit was a banana? Adam must have tempted Eve with that.
Yes yes, CurtC, I had composed a similar post only maybe not so kind and a little bit NSFW. The banana is really perfectly designed for a lot of things. You have to wonder what was on Gods mind when He designed the banana.
“It would only be fair to let these people know how screwed they are.”