Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Bananas in Pyjamas
The characters were inspired by a 1967 song written for children by British composer Carey Blyton (nephew of renowned children's author Enid Blyton). The jaunty song describes (an unspecified number of) bananas in pyjamas chasing teddy bears, with a slight twist at the end where a musical sting emphasises that the bananas like to "catch them unawares". The song was shown on the Australian version of Play School for many years accompanied by an animation depicting a pair of bananas in blue-and-white striped pyjamas, and the number and physical appearance of B1 and B2 are based on this animation.
Given the preschooler audience, chasing and scaring teddy bears is not a plotline for the show itself, the bananas being more interested in singing, dancing, and playing with the bears and other characters, and bantering with each other.
The show is performed using human actors in elaborate costumes, in the style of the British Teletubbies or Tweenies. In the show's early days, the voices of the bananas were provided by the same actors as were inside the costume, but the original actors have given up that aspect of the show and substitutes now man the hot, stuffy costumes.
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