[6] Maurizio Cattelan is an Italian artist known for his tongue-in-cheek art, such as his 2016 creation America, a fully functional golden toilet.

[7] He previously used duct tape suspension for A Perfect Day in 1999, fastening the art dealer Massimo De Carlo to a gallery wall.

[8][9] At the 2019 Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain art fair in Paris, the American conceptual interventionist Meth Fountain showed a half-eaten croissant affixed to the wall, predating Comedian by several months.

[15] Emmanuel Perrotin, the gallerist exhibiting the work, stated Comedian is "a symbol of global trade, a double entendre, as well as a classic device for humor".

It calls to mind the old Lucile Bluth Arrested Development gag about rich people not knowing the price of a banana.

"[12] Artnet wrote the piece was one of the worst of the week, and that Cattelan "somehow duped a group of collectors into buying bananas duct-taped to walls for $120,000 a pop.

[24] In his 2021 book The Devil in the Gallery, Noah Charney stated, "Comedian is neither beautiful nor does it exhibit skill, so it represents the Duchampian path.

[13] Following a highly publicized tour and bidding, Comedian sold at Sotheby's during "The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction" on 20 November 2024 for $5,200,000 ($6,240,000 after fees), well above its $1,000,000-$1,500,000 estimate.

"[38] In April 2023, the piece located in the Leeum Museum of Art was eaten by a student, Noh Hyun-soo, who then taped the peel back onto the wall.

[40] Cryptocurrency artist CryptoGraffiti created The Commodity, "which instructed collectors to find and claim a banana with a bitcoin key address carved into it".

[41] Designer Simon Porte Jacquemus "created a merch opportunity when posting a duct-taped yellow version of [his] micro Le Chiquito bag".

[10][42] Multiple other brands followed suit, including the New York Mets, Burger King, Hostess, Perrier, Carrefour, Sweetgreen, Absolut, and Bobbi Brown.

[46] One of the walls featuring the piece was later vandalized with the text "Epstien didn't kill himself" [sic] in lipstick, which was soon covered by the art fair.

[47] Artist Joe Morford filed a suit against Cattelan for copyright infringement of his 2000 work titled Banana & Orange.