Unitasker Wednesday: Bananarama returns
All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!
I’m starting to think that there are more unitaskers made for bananas than for any other purpose. We’ve certainly featured a number of them on Unclutterer. Do you remember:
- the Banana Saver,
- the rectangle-shaped Banana Slicer,
- the banana-shaped Banana Slicer,
- the Nana Saver banana clip, or
- the very “special” looking Banana Bunker?
If you’re a stockpiler of fine banana unitaskery, then the Bananza Banana Slicer might be the next item for your collection. (Do you see how they misspelled Bonanza as Bananza … puns in product names are soooooo clever!):
The strongest argument against this unitasker is that a knife can do the same thing and clean up much more easily. In fact, the rectangle-shaped Banana Slicer AND the banana-shaped Banana Slicer would be easier to clean than this dangerous looking, six-blade contraption.
Honestly, I look at the Bananza Banana Slicer and all I can imagine is some kid sticking his younger brother’s finger in it. Wait — maybe it is a multi-tasker? A banana slicer and finger guillotine all in one!
Thanks to reader Red for introducing us to yet another banana unitasker.
18 comments posted
Posted by jdm - 02/16/2011
Nice to know that the dull blades keep hands safe during use – - so would your basic “butter” knife that everyone probably already owns eight or so of in their standard cutlery set.
Posted by Erin - 02/16/2011
Is there anything of value that is priced at $x.99?
Posted by Bubble Eater - 02/16/2011
LOL @ finger guillotine!
Posted by Kathryn Fenner - 02/16/2011
But you could also use it to slice hard-boiled eggs or wienies! Beans and wienies are so time-intensive to prepare! Short-cut the process!
–and I, for one, cannot slice hard-boiled eggs neatly without one of those egg-slicers- for which this could stand in– though my need for sliced hard boiled eggs is a number approaching zero…
Posted by Karen - 02/16/2011
I have a small gadget that’s similar to this for slicing mushrooms (it also works for strawberries, eggs, etc.) I actually use it quite a bit, but not for bananas! This looks like more time consuming than just using a knife.
Posted by Robin - 02/16/2011
Hey, if you got this thing, and the Banana Saver, and the Nana Saver Clip, you’d be perfectly set! You could transport your banana in the saver, slice half of it whith this thingy, and then use the nana saver to save the other half. Hmmm, I wonder if the half banana with the nana saver on it would fit back into the Banana Saver for the trip back home? Of course, you’re not quite set. You still need a banana shaped duffel bag to carry all your banana accessories around…
Posted by Jen - 02/16/2011
I wonder what it is about bananas that engenders so many unitaskers to be created around them. My theory is that it’s their shape – if it makes the 10-year old in all of us giggle a little then maybe it makes us all think about what to design around it too? Oh, and Robin – they should totally bundle those products and sell them all together. It would win the Nobel Prize of unitaskers!
Posted by Erin - 02/16/2011
Who buys this stuff? Maybe they make their money on people looking for white elephant gifts.
Posted by Shakti - 02/16/2011
Your child is still very young, but at some point you will probably find yourself putting bananas in lunch boxes or snack bags, which then go into backpacks. You will find that children utterly reject bruised bananas. You will suddenly understand the appeal (NPI) of the banana saver or the banana bunker.
Posted by Erin Doland - 02/16/2011
@Shakti — Or, you get your kid a hard lunch box and protect all food from being crushed … that’s what my mom did for us kids.
Posted by The Other Jen - 02/16/2011
What’s really scary is that I popped into Williams Sonoma in Toronto this evening after seeing this on Unclutterer, and saw a whole bin of these today!
Posted by Natalie in West Oz - 02/17/2011
I work in a school. I’m guessing these could save a bit of time in a kindy or a daycare centre. All the junior primary’s I’ve been in use an apple slicer contraption that IKea sells. It cuts apples into 6 even pieces in one push. No cut fingers, no core, no fighting over ‘his piece is bigger than mine’.
Hmmm…. I cant believe I am actually potentially defending a unitasker! I wouldnt ever use one at home though as we’re uncultured folk who simply peel back the skin and eat the banana in nibbles.
Posted by Gal @ Equally Happy - 02/17/2011
We were in Safeway last night and saw individually shrink wrapped potatoes being sold as “custom packaged!” and “microwave ready”. This post reminded me of that for some reason. I guess because these types of marketing ploys rely on us being very single minded and not realizing “wait a minute, I already have a solution for this, why would I need this useless thing?”
Posted by Layla - 02/17/2011
Haha… I was just talking about the banana protector at lunch today (do they come in different sizes?) I was hoping they would have an insulated banana protector, so my banana will be perfect after walking from the bus to work.
I call myself a minimalist. Ha!
Posted by Charity - 02/17/2011
Hard lunch boxes still get dropped and thrown around, so that the other items in the box crush the banana. My 5 year old has conclusively proven this one! I’m about to buy a second banana guard actually, so the kids can both have a banana on the same day without one of them getting mangled.
Oooh I want one of those apple cutter thingys described above. That would be realy useful.
Posted by Holly - 02/17/2011
Some people use banana slicers so their very young children can help in the kitchen (which many children love to do). It doesn’t require as much coordination as a butter knife so even toddlers can do it. I find that about half the unitaskers posted are actually quite useful for some people…especially those with special needs. There are lots of people who have physical disabilities that would be quite pleased with a banana slicer.
I’ll leave it up to the folks whose hard earned money it is to determine if something is useful for them or not.
Posted by Erin Doland - 02/17/2011
@Holly — As the mother of a toddler, I wouldn’t hand my child a six-bladed contraption like this over a knife. No way.
And, as someone who IS handicapped, I’m baffled by healthy people who think disabled people lack a sense of humor. What is up with that? I used to do stand-up comedy. I’ve performed on the main stage at the DC Improv. I love to laugh, and so do my friends — healthy and disabled.
Posted by Shakti - 02/18/2011
We DO have mostly hard-sided lunchboxes, but we also use reusable plastic juice boxes, sandwich boxes and thermoses, all of which will still bruise the delicate bananas!
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