SMART BANANA (formerly SMART IS THE NEW SEXY) is a science and trivia YouTube channel maintained by TheSoul Publishing. It is the largest channel to have uploaded a mapping video.
TheSoul Publishing is a Cypriot social media company operating in Limassol, Cyprus.[1] The company was founded by Pavel Radaev and Marat Mukhametov.[2] TheSoul Publishing also owns the channels 5-Minute Crafts, BRIGHT SIDE, and Slick Slime Sam.
The channel is inactive. After the controversy, the company behind it (TheSoul Publishing) backed up from publishing history-related content.[3]
Mapping Content[]
Alternate Future of the World[]
On October 25, 2018, SMART BANANA uploaded "THE WORLD MAP OF THE FUTURE (2018 - 3018)...WOW!", which mappers started referring to as SMART BANANA's Alternate Future of the World, for sake of simplicity. It was a mute one-shot, and due to this, it didn't warrant much attention from Mapperdonia (mapping community).
The video currently is private.
Alternate Future of Europe[]
On January 10, 2019, SMART BANANA uploaded a countryball video called Nobody Showed You The Future of Europe Like This, which mappers started referring to as SMART BANANA's Alternate Future of Europe.
Mappers immediately found out about the video and started criticising it. Many mappers attacked the video in a brutal way, other mappers on the other hand were more reserved.
Compared to Alternate Future of the World, Alternate Future of Europe has generated around 40k views as of April 2019. This was far less than Alternate Future of the World, yet still made relatively a decent amount of views compared to other SMART BANANA uploads.
The video currently is private.
Controversies[]
Link to Russian propaganda machine[]
SMART BANANA, despite the goal of educating people, often made errors in its videos. That's when the video called "Nobody Showed You the History Of Russia Like This!" became controversial, as it potrayed USSR's leadership and Putin's cadency in a positive light. It also included several misinformation in the video - like saying the Alaska was sold out in 1957 to USA (it happened around one century before), or that Putin brought back free healthcare (it was free before his cadency). Video still criticises Russia inbetween, saying it was corrupted and the crime rate was high. The "bonus" showed animation in which Russia enlarged, conquering much of Europe, China and Middle East. Many people started talking about it, including some news outlets.[4]