Eric is Bananaman, ever alert for the call to action!
This is 29 Acacia Road, and this is Eric, a schoolboy who leads an exciting double life. For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs!
The cartoon that ran during the mid-1980s based on Bananaman. It features voice talents of The Goodies. It ran for 3 seasons and had a total of 40 episodes.
This cartoon provides example of:
- Ace Of Spades: In "Harbour of Lost Ships", Bananaman picks a card from General Blight. He gets the ace of spades, or the dead man's card, but as the viewers can see, all of Blight's cards are the exact same. He is then forced to Walk the Plank.
- Adaptation Name Change: Eric Wimp is known as Eric Twinge here.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: In "The Kidnap Caper".Narrator: O'Reilly's clever coppers cuffed the crafty criminal and carted him off to the clink!
- Animate Inanimate Object: A pair of pyjamas in "The Snowman Cometh" attempts to run away when the snowman shoots a beam at them.
- Anti-Climax: At the end of "Auntie's Back in Town", Crow states that he thinks that after what they've gone through (Bananaman's supposed death), the situation is an Auntie-climax.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom" shows that Dr. Gloom's lab has poison, more poison, even more poison, nasty stuff, and cod liver oil.
- Balloonacy: The titular sidekick in "The Banana Kid" follows him by attaching almost a dozen balloons to himself and flying.
- Banana Peel: Bananaman used them on two Nerks in "The Alien Planet" after eating two bananas.
- Big Bad: General Blight, the villain of most of the episodes, and the leader whenever a Villain Team-Up happens.
- Book Ends: The same animation is used for the first and last time we see General Blight in season 1.
- Bound and Gagged:
- The Chairman in "The Kidnap Caper" is Chained to a Railway with a rope and has a gag in his mouth. Bananaman lifts the latter temporarily so he can say "Hurry up!"
- "Tunnel of Terror" has two fun fair staff members unable to do their jobs due to being tied up and having gags on their faces because of General Blight and Dr. Gloom.
- Bridal Carry: At the end of "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas", Bananaman carries Fiona home in his arms.
- Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: In the episode "Trouble at the Mill", Appleman helds Eric and his cousin Samantha hostage in an attempt to force the former into telling him where Bananaman is.
- Bookcase Passage: In "House on Hangman's Hill", Bananaman pulls a book in the house at Hangman's Hill's library, causing him to find the Heavy Mob's hideout.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: In "Night of the Nerks", a bus with "If you can read this, you are watching Bananaman" shows up and drives quickly away.
- Brick Joke: In "Battle of the Century", Bananaman swings a ball so hard it lands in the North Pole and is grabbed by someone in an igloo. At the end of the episode, the person shows up and asks if the ball is his.
- The Brute: Morris acts as the muscle of the Heavy Mob.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: In "Tunnel of Terror", only the characters' eyes are visible in the tunnel at some points, except that Dr. Gloom wears glasses so they show up instead.
- Catchphrase: "This banana's loaded, and I won't hesitate to use it!" when Bananaman threatens the Heavy Mob with the banana gun.
- Chained to a Railway: "The Kidnap Caper" has General Blight kidnap the Chairman of the United Nations club committee and chain him to a railway, with Bananaman having to get the combination to free him for ransom money.
- Clip Show: The episode "Memory Lane" has Bananaman appear on Fiona's show with the same name, which shows clips from previous episodes regarding Bananaman's endeavors, the villains' schemes (primarily focusing on General Blight, Dr. Gloom, Appleman, and Auntie), and one time Crow helped save Bananaman from falling down. It also has no title card and Bananaman turns back to Eric at the end, but the episode ends right as that happens and is likely non-canon.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end of "Disaster at Devil's Cove", Bananaman puts General Blight and Dr. Gloom as targets above a cartboard cutout for children to throw coconuts at them.
- Cue the Flying Pigs: At the end of "Intergalactic Olympics", Crow tells Bananaman that pigs don't fly. The episodes cuts to a whole sounder of swine with wings.
- Colorful Contrails: Bananaman often has yellow trails behind him when he flies.
- Conspicuously Light Patch: The bricks Bananaman breaks through in "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom" are clearly much brighter than the rest of the wall.
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Samantha is tied to a log on a conveyor belt moving towards a saw in "Trouble at the Mill".
- Counterfeit Cash: "House on Hangman's Hill" has the Heavy Mob use the printing press to make fake banknotes. They're accurate in every detail, except for the fact there's no such thing as a nine-pound note.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Bananaman as a baby in "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom" may be considered sweet by Dr. Gloom, but even the villain can't stand him crying, partially since it doesn't let him have a call with General Blight.
- Damsel in Distress:
- "The Alien Planet" starts with Bananaman hearing literal calls of distress from a girl trapped in a tower it. As it turns out, it's just a recording by General Blight.
- Fiona is kidnapped by a giant gorilla in "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas", so Bananaman flies to the jungle to save her.
- Dark Is Evil: Dr. Gloom's clothing mostly has black and purple on it and he's one of the show's main antagonists.
- Dastardly Whiplash: General Blight is a typical villain of this sort with his scheming, mustache, and tone of voice. The only thing that's different is his military outfit.
- Delivery Stork: In "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom", Crow carries Dr. Gloom as a baby back to General Blight like a stork.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The page quote above is actually the second version of the shorts' intro. The first had both "amazing double life" and "amazing transformation".
- Destructive Savior: The police department had a character whose whole job was fixing the holes in the wall Bananaman would make whenever they called him for help.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Bananaman plays a part of the theme song on a piano in "Jaws of Steel", which O'Reilly considers terrible.
- Dread Zeppelin: Weatherman has an airship with a pilot cabin that can also dive underwater.
- Dressed to Plunder: General Blight dresses as a pirate and the Heavy Mob as crewmates in "The Pirate TV Station". So does Bananaman in "Harbour of Lost Ships".
- Dressing as the Enemy: Bananaman dresses as King Zorg in "Night of the Nerks".
- Dude in Distress: In "The Kidnap Caper", General Blight captured the Chairman of the United Nations club committee and tied him to a railroad.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Appleman shows up for the first time for a split-second in "Jaws of Steel" among the other villains, but he wouldn't make an official debut until season 2's "Trouble at the Mill".
- Edible Theme Naming: Our hero Bananaman, but there also some villains, like Appleman and Captain Cream.
- Elongating Arm Gag: "Battle of the Century" has the Heavy Mob get caught by the long arms of the law after attempting to steal baked desserts, with their length going beyond the screen.
- Episode Title Card: Every episode starts with a title card presented on a blue background with yellow words. The only exception is "Memory Lane", which uses a white background and fancy-looking blue words.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: The aliens from planet Nerk are willing to capture Bananaman, but they still like to talk to their mother.
- Famed In-Story: Bananaman is known to have a lot of Banana Fans in the city who tend to wear merchandise of him and are always excited to see him. It turns out that even undersea creatures are Bananaman's greatest fans, with an octopus being pleased to see him in "The Pirate TV Station". Even Banana Kid becomes popular and actually gets into pictures thanks to Herman B.
- Fountain of Youth: In "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom", Dr. Gloom turns Bananaman into a toddler with a beam. He turns back into an adult with the help of a banana and rebounds the beam back at Dr. Gloom.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Sometimes characters have four. Other times they have five. Sometimes characters have four fingers on one hand and five on the other.
- From Bad to Worse: Bananaman manages to escape from snakes in "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas", only to end up captured by a giant gorilla.
- Gasp!: Bananaman reacts with a loud "GASP!" when he sees the train riding to its doom in "The Kidnap Caper".
- Giant Spider: "The Web of Evil" has Dr. Gloom accidentally turn a spider giant thanks to his potion, which is then used to cover the Police HQ in web.
- Girl in the Tower: The girl in "The Alien Planet" is seemingly captured in a tower. Of course, when Bananaman goes after her, it turns out to be a recording by General Blight and the tower turns into a rocket and flies off to space.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: "Battle of the Century" has the Heavy Mob play a cricket match with Bananaman.
- Green and Mean: The Nerks are a race of green-skinned aliens who oppose Bananaman and take over the city in "Night of the Nerks".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In "Wall of Death", Weatherman shoots a banana-seeking torpedo at Bananaman, but he manages to bend a tube and send it through, making it return to the villain and destroy his submarine.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Bananaman exclaims "Great barbecued bananas!" upon seeing all the controls in the Nerk mothership.
- Hollywood Magnetism: In "The Final Orbit", King Zorg uses a magnet to attract Earth in space, causing it to spin the other way. A magnet in the North Pole manages to beat it.
- Human Cannonball: In "The Alien Planet", Bananaman does an interplanetary re-entry back to Earth by shooting himself out of a cannon.
- Human Popsicle: As shown in "Ice Station Zero", Weatherman has a ray gun which freezes people or puts them in ice cuboids.
- Idea Bulb: When the eponymous sidekick in "The Banana Kid" comes up with an idea how he can follow Bananaman, a bulb hits his head.
- Implausible Deniability: In "The Night Patrol", the Heavy Mob pretends they're schoolboys at a costume party and the stolen valuables are just some trophies. Surprisingly (or not), Bananaman is completely fooled.
- Impossible Pickle Jar: In "Auntie's Back in Town", O'Reilly has significant difficulties with opening a bottle of ketchup, which Bananaman manages to do, but it splatters in his face.
- Inconsistent Coloring: It doesn't seem like there's any consistency to Fiona's sclerae color, or if she even has them.
- Intrepid Reporter: In "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas", Fiona takes part in an expedition to the Banana Republic and films them herself.
- Invisibility: In "Visibility Zero", General Blight uses Dr. Gloom's machine to turn himself invisible to cause trouble for Chief O'Reilly and Bananaman, until he's made visible and frozen by plaster.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Downplayed. In "The Kidnap Caper", General Blight on a poster is proud of being called mean and malicious by O'Reilly, but when he calls him incredibly ugly, he gets angry and thanks him sarcastically.
- Jail Bake: In "The Big Breakout", The Heavy Mob tries to use a cake to escape, putting several tools inside (though the metal detector only notices three). Eddie the Gent tries to pass it off as healthy, with lots of iron.
- Jungle Drums: "The Peril of Ping Pong" has a native of the Tapioca Tribe play a message on the drums from Chipolata, their chief, with Bananaman interpreting the message perfectly, including its interpunction.
- Just Between You and Me: After freezing Bananaman in "Ice Station Zero", Weatherman takes his time to explain how his weather-controlling machine works.
- Just in Time: In "Battle of the Century", it seems that the Heavy Mob is about to win at 99 points, but here comes Bananaman to beat them at cricket.
- Kid Sidekick: A young boy applies to be a swimmer, but is meant to be Bananaman's sidekick in "The Banana Kid". Then again, Eric not transformed into Bananaman is a teenager as well.
- King Kong Copy: A giant gorilla kidnaps Fiona in his hand in "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas", so Bananaman has to rescue her only to also get kidnapped, and it turns out he doesn't really want to hurt them.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At the end of "A Tank Full of Trouble", children pelt Captain Cream with the same ice cream with cod liver oil he tried to serve them.
- Laughably Evil: Most of the villains have humorous voices, a tendency to gesticulate, or make humorous schemes. What do General Blight and Dr. Gloom want to do with the Police HQ in "Tunnel of Terror"? Make a rocket that will cover it with lumpy porridge!
- Laughing at Your Own Jokes: Crow laughs at his own jokes all the time, like the "stool pigeon" one in "Jaws of Steel".
- Major Injury Underreaction: In "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom", after getting hit on the head with a large hammer by Dr. Gloom and before being rendered unconscious, Bananaman only responds with a small, delayed "ouch".
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Gloom may or may not be a real doctor, but he does seem to be into surgery and tries to get rid of Bananaman on numerous occasions.
- Motor Mouth: The policewoman in "Jaws of Steel" speaks so fast that Bananaman can only state that she's simply doing her job.
- Narrator: A deep-voiced narrator describes the events and characters in certain scenes.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Beyond his usual Flying Brick abilities, the animated shorts tended to give Bananaman whatever banana-themed gadget would be most helpful at the time.
- No Time to Think: In "Ice Station Zero", Bananaman decides he has no time to look for an instruction manual and just bends the cold/heat exchange pipes randomly.
- Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: In "Auntie's Back in Town", Crow mourns Bananaman comically after he's been driven over by a roller, but it turns out Bananaman is alive when he mentions intelligence as one of his best qualities.
- Obliviously Evil: The giant gorilla in "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas" kidnaps Bananaman and Fiona because he thinks they're Tarzan and Jane. When he finds out who they really are, he apologises, states he must be in the wrong film, and lets them go.
- Piano Drop: "Jaws of Steel" has Auntie drop a piano on Bananaman. He manages to dodge by accident, but is still hit by a stool.
- Pie in the Face: In "Ice Station Zero", Bananaman throws a "heavier than air" custard pie at Weatherman's face.
- Playing with Fire: In "The Big Breakout", Bananaman uses his thermal finger to cut an outline through a steel door. He still has to blow on it to extinguish it, though.
- Power-Up Food: Bananas let Eric transform, but Bananaman could eat them when already transformed if he needed a sudden burst of power.
- Redhead In Green: Fiona always wears a green outfit as a reporter and has red hair.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Heavy Mob's plane in "The Great Air Race" has "STOLEN PROPERTY" written on it, but none of the audience members watching the air race care about that.
- Remembered I Could Fly: In "The Kidnap Caper", Bananaman tries to remember what the combination for the lock was, until Crow reminds him that he has Super-Strength, which he uses to break it.
- A Rotten Time to Revert: It's not unknown for Bananaman to run out of transformation time in the middle of a crisis and revert to Eric the schoolboy, usually forcing him to hastily eat another banana before whatever villain he's up against mops the floor with him. Of course, it doesn't always happen in battle: in one episode, Bananaman reverts to normal during a live TV interview.
- Security Cling: When Eric gets scared by a spider at the end of "Tunnel of Terror", he jumps into Samantha's shoulders.
- Sentient Vehicle: The Heavy Mob's vehicle in "The Great Air Race" turns distressed and then angry after getting damaged by reflected picnic lunch.
- Skewed Priorities: In "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom", Fiona explains that if Bananaman doesn't negotiate with Dr. Gloom, the world will be in danger and the midnight movie will be cancelled! When our hero shows up to talk to the Doctor, he makes sure to mention the movie.
- Sinister Silhouettes: "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom" has General Blight and Dr. Gloom first show up as shadows visible through a window.
- Sleep Mask: "Destination Danger" shows Crow wearing a heart-print mask on his eyes while sleeping.
- Slippery Soap: In "The Pirate TV Station", Eddie the Gent holds a bar of soap, which he drops and General Blight slips on it. Then Bananaman tosses it to trip up the other members of the Heavy Mob.
- Snowlems: Weatherman has a robot snowman standing guard at Ice Station Zero.
- Something Only They Would Say: In "Double Trouble", Crow asks Bananaman and his clone a question to determine which one is real. Due to the way Bananaman spots the trick question, he determines that's the real one.
- Split-Screen Phone Call: When Dr. Gloom converses with General Blight in "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom", the screen is split into two triangular areas.
- Squashed Flat: In "Auntie's Back in Town", she drives over immobilised Bananaman with a roller, causing him to become flat, but he survives.
- The Strength of Ten Men: The animated series has the narrator point out that Bananaman has the strength of twenty men. Adds Bananaman, "Twenty big men."
- Take That!: When King Zorg is about to grab a slow-moving satellite, General Blight asks if it’s Russian.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: "The Big Breakout" shows that the Heavy Mob has several tally marks in their cell, usually in sets of seven.
- "Test Your Strength" Game: The rocket's ignition in "Tunnel of Terror" is a test your strength game. It's normally meant to make it go space, but the villains intended it to fly to the police HQ.
- Theme Music Power-Up: When Eric turns into Bananaman, a distinct and triumpthant theme plays.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: The tape left by General Blight for Bananaman in "The Alien Planet" seemingly knows when Bananaman would realise it's his trap.
- The Television Talks Back: Fiona the newsreader would announce that some terrible new danger had arisen, and then reach out of the TV set, give Bananaman a prod and point out that this was his cue to go into action. He appreciated this, and gave her bouquets from his side of the wall.
- This Is a Drill: The Mole uses a huge drill machine in "The Big Breakout".
- Threatening Shark: Bananaman has to deal with hungry sharks in "The Banana Kid". The sidekick just fishes them up.
- Transformation Sequence: Triggered when Eric eats a banana, during which he sprouts muscles and grows two feet.
- Trap Door: In "Destination Danger", the king of aliens presses a button on his throne to make him fall down a trapdoor when he gets sick of him listing all his titles.
- Unsound Effect: A series of Written Sound Effects representing a fight between Bananaman and Captain Cream in the pitch dark in "A Tank Full of Trouble" eventually ended in "ETC!"
- Verbal Backspace: When Eric wants to tell O'Reilly that Bananaman is coming, he'll often say "I'm on my, er, he's on his way!"
- A Villain Named "Z__rg": Zorg, the king of the Nerks, a race of aliens who have tried to stop Bananaman.
- Villainous Friendship: As established in "Bananaman Meets Dr. Gloom", General Blight's and Dr. Gloom are schoolchums who work together to stop Bananaman.
- Vine Swing: In "The Lost Tribe of the Tapiocas" and "The Last Banana", Bananaman swings on a vine and lets out a long scream. He ultimately ends up stuck hanging upside down, then falls down.
- Walk the Plank: Bananaman is forced to walk the plank, blinded and tied up, in "Harbour of Lost Ships".
- "Wanted!" Poster: O'Reilly has several wanted posters in his office. They're normally empty, but in "The Kidnap Caper", it shows a portrait of General Blight which reacts to what he says.
- Water-Geyser Volley: At the end of "Fog of Fear", Bananaman is seen having "a whale of a time" by lying on a whale spouting out water.
- Weather-Control Machine: Weatherman specialises in contraptations that change the weather, like the one that causes snow in "Ice Station Zero" and the one that causes rain in "Wall of Death".
- Weird Weather: In "Wall of Death", it's literally raining buckets and the rain forms poodle-shaped puddles.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Appleman has a fear of maggots (because they are known for eating inside apples), which makes him run away in "Trouble at the Mill".
- You Can Say That Again: In "The Kidnap Caper", Eric exclaims "Blistering banana skins!" and O'Reilly says "You can say that again!", but just as he's about to do so, he interrupts him.
- "You!" Exclamation: After watching the tape recording of a girl shouting "Distress!" in "The Alien Planet", Bananaman exclaims "It's you! General Blight!"
