If you’ve ever seen the movie Beverly Hills Cop, you’re likely familiar with the “banana up the tailpipe” scene. In the 1984 classic film, Eddie Murphy’s character, Axel Foley, sticks a banana up the tailpipe of undercover cops who are tailing him. Needless to say, the car starts to pull off, but then quickly comes to a halt — all thanks to the banana clogging up the car’s engine. Does that trick really work? The logic does make some sense, but only if you don’t know much about cars. Here’s how it’s supposed to work: Your car’s engine is essentially a big air pump that sucks in fresh air and fuel, ignites the mixture to create power, then expels the exhaust gases out through the tailpipe. Block that tailpipe and the exhaust has nowhere to go…….in theory. In reality, the banana would wind up on the street. That’s because a banana simply won’t work in effectively sealing off the tailpipe because it’s not big enough. Even if it was big enough and you managed to cram it in there really well, once that engine fires up, the force of the exhaust gases would likely send that fruit flying faster than you can say, “We ain’t gonna fall for no banana up the tailpipe!”
