Warrior #5 – V for Vendetta (1982)
Written by Alan Moore
Artwork by David Lloyd
Chef’s Note: “Remember, remember the Fifth of November!”
As it is Guy Fawkes Day I thought it fitting to feature one of my favorite scenes from V for Vendetta. It is not considered an official part of the story, rather a quote-unquote “interlude”, but I find this idea of his early days fascinating – before he was a well-known figure to Norsefire, engaged in these small acts of poetic terrorism.
We only get this, and Vincent. There are certainly more. Hopefully one day we will hear about them all.
Chef’s Note: I confess the first time I encountered this scene I did not catch the fact that V is sitting on the rooftop munching away on a banana. We only see it in silhouette.
He then stands and casually tosses the peel aside, just as the victim has made his way past. It lands just beyond the window sash on the 18 inches wide ledge, waiting for the arrogant tread of the Fingerman.
It wasn’t until the final scene occurred that I had to go back and read it again to catch this classic set up to a most gratifying punchline.
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The gag first appeared on the silver screen in the Harold Lloyd silent film The Flirt. While sitting in a restaurant, Lloyd’s character diligently peels a banana then tosses the skin on the floor. A snooty waiter walks by with a full tray, slips and falls. Chaos ensues. Buster Keaton heightened the gag in his film The High Sign (1921). Walking down the street, Keaton encounters a banana peel on the sidewalk. He proceeds to walk over it, but contrary to the audience expectation, he does so totally unharmed. Keaton puts his hands to his mouth and mocks the peel, only to slip on a second peel he didn’t see.
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Despite its status as a quintessential part of Slapstick and Cartoon Physics, the use of a banana peel as an injurious prop is actually alarmingly realistic and a reference to its ubiquity on the streets of American cities in the early part of the 20th century. Refrigeration and shipping speed had combined to make bananas the most popular fruit in the country, and in that age before anti-littering laws, people would just eat the fruit and discard the peels wherever they were. As they rotted, the peels would become quite slippery and thus dangerous to tread upon. Banana peels were in fact responsible for a large number of accidents and injuries, including several severely broken legs that eventually had to be amputated, according to period sources. The problem grew so bad that modern urban street sanitation systems were invented mostly to deal with the peel; in New York City, the banana peel actually became something of a symbol of modern sanitation. This is also frequently homaged, just about anytime a cartoon character ends up crashing into a trash can, garbage truck, or any other public-sanitation device, he’s likely to find himself having at least one banana peel stuck to him.