The "Australian" Banana's

Hopkinson (2005) provides some background on the "Banana's".

"Bananas in Pyjamas' originated as a nonsense song composed by Carey Blyton, a music professor and coincidentally the nephew of Enid Blyton, for his young son in the late 60s." (p.15)

Source:  http://www.abc.net.au/

The Australian tv favourite, "Playschool" picked up the song and it was so popular that a banana was added to the cast.  So it is therefore assumed that the "Banana's" concept originated in England, but was popularised and adapted into a television show by Australian television producers.




There were no available online video's of the Banana's to download from the ABC net website during the September/October 2010 period.  A quick search of YouTube located some episodes from 1992.  As noted on the Australian Screen website, the Banana's in Pyjama's episodes ran from 1992-2002.  However, they still show these episodes on the ABC television station a few times a week.

The "Banana's" originally featured people in suits (however an ABC News article from 2009 notes that the characters are now going into 2D animation as well - see http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/18/2602041.htm).  There are three bear characters, and the two banana's, who are portrayed as twin brothers.  All the creatures live on a street called "Cuddles Lane".  Each episode runs for about 5 minutes.

The "Banana's" almost appear universal in their stories, in that "Cuddles Lane" could be anywhere in the world.  As noted on the official "about" website the "Banana's" are seen in 70 countries around the world.  The website also proudly proclaims that the "Banana's" have been on the "Oprah" tv show! This is quite amusing as it suggests that you don't really hit the world stage until you have been on the "Oprah" show!

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/18/2602041.htm

Looking at a number of "Banana in Pyjama's" episodes on YouTube including "Lost Voice", "Dreamtime" and "Take One" (seen above) there does not seem to be many of the nine themes (quoted in a previous entry) related to "Australian" identity present.  "Diversity" might be present, as we have two pieces of fruit mixing it up with their neighbours who are teddy bears (best described as 'non-fruit' perhaps??) ...did I really just write that?!  And there is evidence of "agreeableness of personal characteristics", but then one would wonder about a children's television show aimed at pre-schoolers that didn't demonstrate these kinds of characteristics.

The most obvious Australian characteristic present in the show is the Australian accent. The two "Banana's" have a strong Australian accent, however one of the bear's (Lulu) seems to speak in what sounds like a French accent (?) The role of language in defining something as being "Australian" is mentioned under the  "rules of citizenship" theme.