April 2 is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

According to some sources, American soldiers in World War II invented peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by combining the peanut butter, jelly, and bread in their rations. So if World War II had never happened, we might be putting some other kind of sandwich in kids’ lunchboxes.

For me, it’s hard to hear the phrase “peanut butter and jelly” without thinking of the dancing banana that sings “Peanut Butter Jelly Time.”

“Peanut Butter Jelly Time” is a Flash animation that first emerged at the early part of this century and quickly became an Internet phenomenon. The animation is based on a song of the same name recorded by DJ Chipman of the Buckwheat Boyz. The best known version of the animation which can be seen above shows a highly pixelated Dancing Banana moving back and forth to the song’s chorus.”  (Read more at peanutbutterjellytime.net.)

Family Guy parodied “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” twice: The first time, Brian dresses like a banana and performs the song to cheer Peter up. In a subsequent episode, Stewie time-travels back to that point and steals Brian’s thunder by beating him to it.

Brian performs “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” on Family Guy

Related articles

• National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day 2014: History and Cool Facts (theepochtimes.com)
• Today on the tray: Fluffernutters (and A Very Brady Surprise) (michaelstvtray.com)