RENT - Singular Banana

[A Director]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 5:46pm

In Today 4 U, Mark and Collins sing

Bustelo -- Marlboro
Banana by the bunch
A box of Captain Crunch will taste so good

Shouldn't it be bananas by the bunch? Is Banana by the bunch an ad slogan?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 5:50pm

It's singular because everything else on the list is singular.

Updated On: 7/7/12 at 05:50 PM

[A Director]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 5:55pm

That doesn't make sense. People buy a bunch of bananas or a bunch of grapes. Banana by the bunch isn't grammatically correct.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 6:00pm

It doesn't make sense for Benny to say "With condos on the top, whose rent keeps open our shop" and yet he does.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 6:07pm

And Marlboro isn't pronounced the way the do in the song, either. I think they're going for a Harry Belafonte "Day-O" thing.

[Owen22]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 6:12pm

Maybe the singular banana is supposed to be sung with a Caribbean accent, thus the accented dropping of the plural...

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 6:22pm

THIS is what bothers you most about Rent? Not the fact that Mark says he's going off to help Joanne, comes back and then leaves again to go help Joanne?

Or the fact that the movie is set in the 80's yet retains the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing reference with the yellow rental truck packed with fertilizer?



Updated On: 7/7/12 at 06:22 PM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 6:40pm

Whatever happened to Wilson?

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 6:48pm

Roger also says "I have always love you" at the end of Your Eyes. Maybe nobody liked suffixes back then?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 7:24pm

I think maybe "Banana by the bunch" is supposed to be like, the essence of banana; like, "banana" the substance. I don't think that's much better, but maybe that's what it was supposed to be.

and I totally agree, CATSNYrevival! plus the fact that it's set in 189-90 and there is a Thelma and Louise reference.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 8:38pm

I keep reading this thread title to the tune of "One" from ACL.


RENT!
Singular banana
Every little step she takes

[ElphabaGoodman]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 8:47pm

I am a RENT fan (wouldn't consider myself a RENThead, but I've seen the show 5 times and have enjoyed it), but a lot of Larson's lyrics don't make sense.

"525,600 minutes.
525,000 moments so dear."

What about the other 600 minutes? Are they not so dear?

[kdogg36]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 9:12pm

Perhaps one Larson moment equals about 1.00114286 minutes.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 9:12pm

No - every "moment" lasts slightly more than a minute.

[kdogg36]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 9:17pm

Great nerds think alike.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 7/7/12 at 9:57pm

Isn't it a Hand of Bananas?

[ActingDude172]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 1:53am

CATSNYrevival - Shouldn't we assume he runs into Collins on the street after he first leaves? That's why he's next seen helping Collins bring the goods into the loft. Collins introduces him to Angel, says let's surprise Roger with him, and also asks for help getting the Marlboros, etc. inside. Mark then leaves after their visit to meet with Joanne as he initially planned.

And my guess at the "Banana by the bunch" line is that Larson is making a point about how we've commercialized organic products. He makes the word a singular brand-sounding name in the vein of Bustelo, Marlboro, and so on.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/8/12 at 2:06am

Look, it's Santa Claus!