Banana in my ear
The
banana in my ear genre of humor represents a prototypically American form of irony and chagrin, expressing both amusement and frustration with
Catch-22 situations. The genre gets its name from the following joke, an exchange between two people:
- "Hey, you've got a banana in your ear!"
- "What?"
- "I said, YOU'VE GOT A BANANA IN YOUR EAR!"
- "What? I can't hear you; I've got a banana in my ear!"
The preposterous situation in which a person complains of being unable to hear helpful advice, because the advice he's not taking
prevents him from hearing it, has far-reaching implications in the fields of
law,
engineering and
philosophy.
See: