Man Discovers Gigantic Banana at Grocery Store

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A man couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered a giant banana weighing nearly 1 pound at the supermarket.

Ethan Barnes, a grocery worker in Michigan, stumbled across the beast in a Meijer store.

Barnes shared a clip of his find to his TikTok account, @apmellowboyy, on Tuesday and it has already racked up more than 3 million views. In the video, he says he "found this big boi while stocking bananas."

The 19-year-old told Newsweek it was "the biggest I've seen and the biggest I've stocked so far." After finding it, he said he immediately went on break.

"I ate it, almost a pound's worth of banana went into my stomach," he said, adding it "tasted like your ordinary banana."

Barnes admitted he nearly didn't work that day, saying: "I'd like to say it's crazy how an everyday item can grab so much attention. I almost called in that day to be honest. I picked it up and knew I had to make a TikTok about it. The internet is the internet, so I thought maybe it could blow up since it was massive."

In the clip he films the yellow fruit next to a display of bananas, showing how it dwarves all the others on the shelf, then takes it to the scanner and weighs it.

The banana clocks in at a whopping 0.935 pounds and costs 55 cents. After buying the banana, Barnes films himself in his car, saying "let's peel this boy."

It looks like a regular banana on the inside and Barnes takes a triumphant bite in the clip, which can be seen here.

"Don't worry I didn't waste the banana," he assured viewers. Asked by commenters later how it tasted, he replied: "It wasn't bad at all."

The giant fruit has gone down a storm with fellow TikTokers, who speculated that it could be a record-breaker.

Rose Romola reckoned: "That is a whole meal in a single banana."

Giant banana Ethan Barnes found.
The giant banana Ethan Barnes found. The teenager said it weighed almost a pound, and cost 55 cents. @apmellowboyy

"You should've taped it to a wall. You could've sold that for a couple hundred thousand," Arinza Okeke suggested.

Raechelle admitted: "Little sad. I wanted it to be a banana inside a banana like when farmers find a huge egg and it's an entire egg inside."

Chron1c-1 joked: "That's the cartoon banana in real life."

NavalFox asked: "No one else thinking World Record here."

Marcus Drees had a theory about why the banana was so huge, writing: "I'm pretty sure that's two infused into one."

The Pancake Goblin went even bigger, posting: "Pretty sure it's 3 bananas welded together at birth."

Ethan Barnes and his giant banana.
Ethan Barnes and his giant banana. Barnes, from Michigan, said it tasted like a regular banana. @apmellowboyy

It's not the first supersized food item to go viral in recent weeks, after a man ended up with a "f****** huge" chicken sandwich at Burger King.

TikToker taylorprice943 shared a clip of the massive meal to the social media site earlier this month, where it amassed more than 3 million views.

Numerous theories were offered to explain its size—and many commenters warned that the man in the video should not eat the chicken—but taylorprice943 shared an update revealing that the giant sandwich was mostly batter.

"For everyone that's worried about it being undercooked, it was not undercooked. It was definitely cooked fine," said the TikToker.

Newsweek has reached out to Meijer for comment.

Update 9/23/21, 11 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment, video and photo from Barnes.

About the writer

Rebecca Flood is Newsweek's Audience Editor for Life & Trends, and joined in 2021 as a senior reporter. Rebecca specializes in lifestyle and viral trends, extensively covering social media conversations and real-life features. She has previously worked at The Sun, The Daily Express, The Daily Star, The Independent and The Mirror, and has been published in Time Out. Rebecca has written in the UK and abroad, covering hard news such as Brexit, crime and terror attacks as well as domestic and international politics. She has covered numerous royal events including weddings, births and funerals, and reported live from the King's Coronation for Newsweek. Rebecca was selected to be one of Newsweek's Cultural Ambassadors. She is a graduate of Brighton University and lives in London.

Languages: English

You can get in touch with Rebecca by emailing r.flood@newsweek.com. You can follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @thebeccaflood.





Rebecca Flood is Newsweek's Audience Editor for Life & Trends, and joined in 2021 as a senior reporter. Rebecca specializes ... Read more