Banana For Scale — Split image of a miniature banana on a fingertip and a real banana atop a cardboard box for size comparison

Banana For Scale

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Published August 16, 2026

Banana For Scale is an internet photography gag where someone places a banana next to another object so viewers can judge its real-life size. The format spread through Reddit and Imgur in 2013 and later inspired parody versions like Double Bed For Scale.

photo fad memes viral photo memes subreddit origin memes snowclone memes early 2010s memes

Overview

Banana For Scale is a visual joke where someone places a banana into a photograph so viewers can gauge how big the object beside it actually is4. The banana works as a familiar measuring stick because most people know roughly how long one is, which makes it a useful stand-in for a ruler while also looking absurd5. The format usually shows the banana lying flat next to whatever's being photographed, from home appliances to novelty items.

The gag doubles as a running joke about lazy photo descriptions. When an Imgur or Reddit user posts something impressive but hard to size up, commenters will demand a banana for scale3. Over time the format got so recognizable that people started swapping in other objects, like acoustic guitars or full-size beds, as parody scale references1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Blog (Rock Dog Designs) / Reddit (viral spread)
Date
2005

The earliest known use of a banana as a photo scale reference came on March 30, 2005, when the blog Rock Dog Designs included one in an image of a television being sold online4. The gag stayed niche for years until August 30, 2010, when blogger Andy Herald posted a Facebook photo of a safe with a banana laid beside it, drawing jokes from his friends about the fruit2.

Two years later, on August 24, 2012, Herald published an infographic on the parenting humor site HowToBeADad about using bananas as a unit of measurement2. That piece helped codify the joke as a repeatable format rather than a one-off caption.

How It Spread

The joke went mainstream on Reddit throughout 2013. On June 11, Imgur user KingOPancakes posted an album titled 'How to win a bet when you lose a bet' about a prank lock box holding a Dunkin Donuts gift card, with bananas visible in two shots for scale4. On November 26, Redditor r0bbE posted a picture of an oversized banana next to a keyboard with a smaller banana for scale to /r/pics, and the subreddit /r/BananasForScale was created three days later on November 293.

On December 8, 2013, Reddit user ASharkToof posted a photo of himself standing beside actor Tom Hanks, who looked puzzled at a comically large banana being held up for scale. That post cleared 25,700 upvotes in nine days3. By April 2014, the /r/BananasForScale subreddit had grown past 400 members and the joke was firmly part of Reddit's shared vocabulary3.

The format later inspired parody offshoots. In March 2017, Redditor dosh_jonaldson posted an apartment listing that showed a fully made double bed placed in every room, including the hallway and kitchen, as a scale reference. The thread hit the top of /r/all with over 115,000 upvotes and drew coverage from Mashable, whose writeup joked that 'the banana's moment in the sun has left it shriveled and dead1.'

How to Use This Meme

To use the format, place a banana somewhere in the frame of your photograph, typically lying flat beside the object you want to show off. Common convention is to caption the photo or drop a comment saying 'banana for scale' so viewers know what to compare against3. The joke often lands hardest when the other object is either surprisingly large or surprisingly small, since the humor comes from the mismatch between the banana's familiar size and whatever it sits next to5.

Frequently Asked Questions