The pinnacle of comedic pratfalls used to be the person slipping on a banana peel. During the Silent Film era, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Buster Keaton performed the falls while live orchestras in the theater provided appropriate sound effects. As films added sound, we were introduced to The Three Stooges. Slapstick comedy never stopped with this trio and they perfected the slip-and-fall technique using any prop available, including the banana. In the modern era, most slips on a banana peel were probably portrayed from the cartoon perspective with animation that made the slipping and falling even more dramatic.
Some have doubted that slipping on a banana peel has ever been real and only staged occurrences happen. Historically, though, there have been genuine slips recorded. The earliest known one comes from a newspaper from the Jersey City, New Jersey area from May 1867. “Mrs. Mary E. Brown, fifty-two years of age, residing in Jersey City, slipped on a banana peel on a sidewalk, in Reade Street, yesterday afternoon, and falling heavily to the sidewalk, sustained a fracture of the leg.”1
“In 1872, Charles Bogart was accused of blackmailing the Delmonico’s restaurant in New York. As the police were escorting him out of the restaurant, Bogart took his chances and escaped. He didn’t get far, though. After running for 10 blocks, Bogart stepped on a banana peel, slipped, and was promptly arrested again.”
“The first reported banana-related death, however, wasn’t directly caused by the peel. In 1888, Will H. Willis of Galveston, Texas, was roused from his sleep by strange noises on the first floor of his home. Thinking it was a burglar, Willis grabbed his pistol and started sneaking downstairs. Unfortunately, he slipped on a banana peel that was sitting in the stairwell for some reason. As he fell, his gun went off, and Willis accidentally shot himself in the head with tragic results.”2
Several other historical slips and deaths are recorded, all thanks to a banana peel thoughtlessly discarded. Who would have thought that such an innocuous item could cause such problems?
God is concerned about us slipping, although He is talking about something different than a banana peel. Hebrews 2:1 says, “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.” Failure to not only hear but do the things recorded in the Word of God can result in believers slipping into disobedience and backslidden conditions.
We need to be anchored in our beliefs and convictions. We do not anchor to ideas, thoughts, and opinions. Instead, our anchor is in a person, Jesus Christ, and in His perfect, complete Word. Otherwise, slipping and drifting will take place. Like the person flat on their back after slipping on the banana peel, we end up spiritually on our backs wondering how it all happened.
David was concerned about slipping. He wrote in Psalms 17:5, “Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.” Another writer in the Psalms, Asaph, got his eyes off of the Lord and nearly slipped into the abyss of disillusionment with God. Psalms 73:1-2 says, “Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. (2) But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.”
If we want to keep from slipping, it all begins with Psalms 40:2. “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.” Once we are saved, we now have to grow. If we begin right and continue right, we won’t have to worry about slipping – except on a banana peel – or ice – or wet floors. There are a lot of places in the world where we must walk carefully. Spiritually speaking, though, our feet will never fail us when they are grounded in Christ.
“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: (7) Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” Colossians 2:6-7
1https://www.oddee.com/10-weird-historical-cases-of-people-slipping-on-banana-peels-77269/
2Ibid.
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