The ape is shown peeling the banana from the top. Primates, except for humans, peel them from the bottom, thus doing away with those pesky stringy bits.
Charlie turns on a gramophone to play some eastern music in order to 'charm' a snake on his bed, but snakes follow the movements of the snake-charmer rather than the rhythm of the music, and Charlie Chan remains still.
The trapeze artists are credited as Marie and Louise Norman in the closing credits but their last name is Normand in the film, seen in the newspaper clipping of Marie and less clearly on their tent.