Bananas Caught in Netflix Controversy, Blames the Edit

Bananas has found himself in another controversy. He appeared on the Netflix dating show Pop the Balloon, and after getting rejected by a series of women, he made a comment that could be perceived as racist.

The show allows for playful, somewhat insulting banter among contestants. Plenty of the women on stage threw jabs at Bananas, but eventually Bananas was asked if he found any of the contestants attractive. He defaulted to commenting on their toes, and he said that one girl looks like she sleeps on trees with her feet.

The comment caused an animated reaction from a contestant named Sheila (a Black woman pictured wearing a blue, plaid dress). As such, fans equated this to making a monkey joke. At a minimum, that would be highly insensitive, but if it was intentional it’d be an overtly racist comment. And Bananas should be aware of how controversial these statements can be; he was caught in a similar scandal earlier this year.

After the controversy surfaced on social media, Bananas discussed it with Leroy on his Death, Taxes & Bananas podcast, and he did the most reality TV thing possible: Blamed it on the edit.

If we’re being fair, it seems likely that Bananas was not referring to Sheila. When he was talking, he taps Louise (the blonde girl in the pink dress) and said “you have really pretty toes” and then he repeats “you have really pretty toes,” seemingly going down the line and assessing each woman sequentially — so that second compliment would have been assigned to Sheila. Then he said, “You look like you sleep upside down from trees,” which would apply to Katherine (green dress).

This exchange happened quite quickly, and Sheila assumed the tree-hanging comment was directed at her and took offense. On the episode, Bananas just laughed and was escorted off the stage to keep the show going.

On his podcast, Bananas also explained that he made the comment because Katherine was wearing a dress with a leafy pattern, hence the tree reference. While this makes sense on some level, Bananas also attributed the backlash to camera angles and “intentional” social media misinterpretation. There may be some truth to the camera angle claim, but it’s not like Bananas did anything to try to assure Shelia that the comment wasn’t about her. He allowed her to feel offended, and that was the only real reaction shown on the episode. As such, it’s not a stretch to assume the commentary was directed at Sheila.

Bananas isn’t entirely innocent in this situation, but the show did encourage some taboo commentary. Earlier in the episode, Bananas joked he was Black “from the waste up” and got a glaring look from host Yvonne Orji (who’s Black) — though he was responding to a woman who rejected him because she usually dates Black men. Bananas also joked that Katherine worked at a night club called Spearmint Rhino, another dig at her dress and likely a comment on her nose.

Clearly, this show wasn’t meant to be entirely PC, and all of Bananas’ statements had a humorous undertone, even if they weren’t funny. So, there’s room for different perspectives on this situation.

One thing that is becoming more clear: Johnny has a thing for feet — so many his little games of footsie on Battle of the Eras weren’t so innocent. Maybe Michele was on to something when she made comments on the bus, but this might be a whole different can of worms.