Forbidden Fruit begins with New York in the grip of a banana shortage. Residents sing (or scream) βYes! We Have No Bananas,β the hit novelty song of 1923 (inspired by real-life banana shortagesβthe film also references current events by mentioning mobster Louis Cohen, arrested for murder the same year). The scene shifts to animator Walter Lantz strumming the song on his guitar, before a co-worker presents him with a banana that transmogrifies into Colonel Heeza Liar, who tells the tale of how he ended βthe great banana famine in 1923.β