Meaning
What does Bananakin mean?
Bananakin (also known as Bananakin Skywalker) is a low-effort pun and a photoshop meme based on the collision of the word “banana” and the name of the fictional character Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars movie franchise.
These memes usually have Anakin’s face photo-edited on a banana, either peeled or whole, and are often surrounded by other puns relating to the Star Wars universe.
Image macro formats are also quite common with the bananakin memes, and there are also versions where Obi-Wan Kenobi is featured under the alias of “Kenopea” or “Potatobiwan”.
Origin
What's the origin of Bananakin?
The pun was invented among fans of the Star Wars franchise around 2007.
It quickly became a very popular pun between fans, so much so that from 2008, many enthusiasts wore a Bananakin themed costume during various Star Wars cons.
The photoshop memes started to emerge on Reddit from 2017.
Spread & Usage
How did Bananakin spread?
Memes that have bananakin as their focal point started to spread in a Reddit thread called /r/PrequelMemes, beginning from the year 2017.
Later other platforms featured these memes as well, such as iFunny.co, Me.me or Pinterest.
Most of these sites compiled their favorite selection of bananakin memes into a list of 10-20 items.
The meme eventually appeared on /r/Funny as well, and variations of it are still getting frequently submitted to /r/StarWarsMemes.
External resources
- Reddit – r/funny
- Reddit – r/PrequelMemes
- Me.me – 25+ Best Bananakin Memes