top banana

T

top banana (idiom)
/ˌtɑp bəˈnænə/

Meaning

• The most important or leading person in a group, company, or activity; the boss or the one in charge.
• The person who matters most in a group, company, or project and usually calls the shots.
• The main comedian in an old-style stage show who gets the biggest laughs and the top spot on the bill.

Synonyms: top dog, big cheese, head honcho, boss, kingpin, big shot, big kahuna.

Example Sentences

1. After years of solid work, Mike became the top banana of the sales team and started calling the shots.
2. In the old burlesque theater, Sarah was the top banana who got the best lines and the biggest laughs every night.

Etymology and Origin

Theatrical Roots in American Burlesque

The idiom “top banana” grew out of the everyday slang of American burlesque and vaudeville. On those stages comedians were ranked by how high they stood on the bill, much the way boxers or wrestlers were graded. The leading comic got the top spot, the strongest lines, and the biggest laughs, while the others filled the supporting ranks. Over time the same ranking language slipped off the stage and came to mean the most important person in any group or organization.

Country of Origin

The expression began in the United States. It took shape on the American theatrical circuits of the early twentieth century and stayed chiefly an American way of speaking even after it left the theater and entered ordinary conversation.

Earliest Printed Appearance

The earliest known printed record dates to 28 December 1947. That day an article by Charles D. Rice about the comedian Phil Silvers appeared under the heading “Top Banana” in the magazine section of the Sunday Star in Washington, D.C., and in syndicated form in other papers such as the Cincinnati Enquirer. In the body of the piece Silvers is said to have started out as a “third banana” at Minsky’s, and a typical burlesque company is described as carrying three comedians known as “first, second and third bananas.” The phrase “top banana” itself shows up only as the title, yet the surrounding talk of ranked “bananas” makes clear the language was already familiar among performers.

The Shared-Banana Sketch Theory

One often-told story links the wording to a double-talk routine that circulated in the 1920s. Phil Silvers later recalled that the burlesque comedian Harry Steppe brought “top banana” into show-business talk in 1927 as the name for the lead comic. In the sketch three performers argued over how to share two bananas; the one who landed the punch line and “won” the fruit became the top banana, while the others ranked lower. The account rests on Silvers’s memory rather than on any written record from the 1920s, and no independent source has yet confirmed the exact moment the phrase was coined.

Related Ranking Terms and Earlier Evidence

The same stage hierarchy produced the companion phrases “second banana” and “third banana.” Printed mentions of “third banana” turn up at least as early as 1938, showing that the ranked “banana” system was already in use among professionals roughly a decade before “top banana” itself reached print. The terms simply marked relative standing inside a comic act: the top or first banana was the star, the second banana the supporting player or straight man, and the third banana the lowest-ranked comic.

Popularization Beyond the Stage

By the early 1950s the expression had begun to move outside pure theatrical slang and was applied to any leading figure or boss. Its wider reach was helped when Phil Silvers starred in the 1951 Broadway musical Top Banana, a show built around a television variety host modeled on the style of the era’s top comics. The musical ran for 350 performances and earned Silvers a Tony Award; a film version followed in 1954. Those productions carried the once-specialized term into general American speech, where it settled as a lively way of naming the person in charge.

An Enduring Theatrical Echo

A lasting curiosity of the phrase is that its theatrical beginning remains only partly documented. While the ranked “banana” system is clearly present in burlesque writing from the late 1930s onward, the precise sketch or performer who first applied the fruit metaphor still rests on performers’ memories rather than on a single verified first use. The gap between the claimed 1927 coinage and the 1947 printed record simply shows how long such insider slang could travel among stage professionals before it finally appeared on the page.

Variants

• second banana
• first banana
• third banana

Fruits, Important