About
“Banana for Scale” is an expression indicating that a banana has been placed in the frame of a photograph to reveal the true-to-life size of another object on display in relative scale.
Origin
On March 30th, 2005, a photo of a banana placed against a TV set was posted on the blog Rockdogdesigns[7] with a description explaining the TV was for sale:
“I don’t know how big the screen is, we’re moving and I can’t find the tape measurer. But I do have a banana. For scale. Oh wait, my husband says it’s 19inches. Oh well, I’ll leave the banana for interest. Please be interested.
Spread
On August 30th, 2010, blogger Andy Herald posted a photograph of a safe to Facebook with a banana laying next to it for scale (shown below), to which several of his friends commented with jokes about the fruit.[1]
On August 24th, 2012, Herald published an infographic for using a banana as a unit of measurement (shown below) to the parenting humor blog HowToBeADad.[1]
On June 11th, 2013, Imgur[2] user KingOPancakes submitted a photo album titled “How to win a bet when you lose a bet,” which contained photographs of a complicated prank lock box containing a $15 Dunkin Donuts card. In two of the photographs, a banana is shown for scale (shown below).
On November 13th, Imgur user TwoBiteBrownie posted an image gallery containing several photographs of a hidden staircase discovered behind a bookshelf (shown below). In one of the photographs, several objects and candy wrappers are shown next to a banana peel, which he explains was put there “for scale” (shown below).
On November 26th, Reddit r0bbE submitted a photograph of a large banana placed next to a keyboard and a smaller banana “for scale” (shown below, left) to the /r/pics[3 subreddit. In the first 21 days, the post gained over 11,300 up votes and 530 comments. The subreddit /r/BananasForScale[6] was created on November 29th. As of April 2014, the subreddit has over 400 redditors. On December 8th, Reddit ASharkToof submitted a photograph of himself with actor Tom Hanks looking perplexed at a large banana being held “for scale” (shown below, right) to the /r/pics[4] subreddit. Within nine days, the post garnered upwards of 25,700 up votes and 490 comments. On December 17th, 2013, the Internet news blog The Daily Dot[5] published an article about the spread of the banana photo fad on the web.
Guitar for Temperature
On January 15th, 2013, Redditor ExtraAnchovies submitted a photograph of his frozen pool in Phoenix, Arizona with an acoustic guitar resting on the ice to the /r/pics[20] subreddit. On the Imgur[19] page for the photograph, user Moonkey replied with the comment “Banana for scale, guitar for temperature. Got it,” which became the post’s highest-voted comment. On April 20th, Imgur user Beltoraze reposted the frozen pool image with the title “Guitar for Temperature.” On March 8th, Imgur[21] user DagnyWasHere submitted a post titled “Ever wondered about the origin of Imgur inside jokes?”, which listed the frozen pool picture as the origin of the “guitar for scale” joke.
Search Interest
External References
[1]HowToBeADad – Banana For Scale
[2]Imgur – How to lose a bet when you win a bet
[3]Reddit – Today I ate a colossal banana
[4]Reddit – I met Tom Hanks last night
[5]The Daily Dot – How the banana for scale became the yardstick of the Internet
[6]Reddit – /r/BananasForScale
[7]Rock Dog Designs – Rock Dog Designs
[8]Reddit – My pool this morning
[19]Imgur – My pool this morning. In Phoenix. It’s cold
[20]Reddit – My pool this morning
[21]Imgur – Ever wondered about the origin of imgur inside jokes?