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J. Wellington Wimpy
Wimpy and Olive Oyl in Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (Template:Fy)
Created by	E. C. Segar
Voice Actors	Allan Melvin Daws Butler Paul Dooley
Alias	Wimpy

J. Wellington Wimpy, generally referred to as Wimpy, is one of the characters in the long-running comic strip Popeye, created by E. C. Segar and originally called Thimble Theatre, and in the Popeye cartoons based upon the strip. Wimpy was one of the dominant characters in the newspaper strip, but when Popeye was adapted as an animated cartoon series by Fleischer Studios, Wimpy became a more minor character; Dave Fleischer said that the character in the Segar strip was "too intellectual" to be used in film cartoons. Wimpy did appear in Robert Altman's 1980 live-action musical film Popeye, played by veteran character actor Paul Dooley.

The character in most of his manifestations is soft-spoken and generally cowardly, or a "wimp", hence his name. According to fellow cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, the name came from that of Wellington J. Reynolds, one of Segar's instructors at the Chicago Art Institute.

During World War II, "Wimpy" was the nickname given to the Vickers Wellington twin-engine, long-range, medium bomber, in reference to the character. Wimpy was also the inspiration for the start-up of a fast-food hamburger chain in the 1950s, generally called Wimpy's, which began in the United States but had its best success in the United Kingdom.

Character

Wimpy is Popeye's friend. In the cartoons he mainly plays the role of the "straight man" to Popeye's outbursts and wild antics. Wimpy is very intelligent, and well educated, but very lazy and gluttonous. He is also something of a scam artist and, especially in the newspaper strip, can be notoriously underhanded at times.

Wimpy loves to eat hamburgers, and is usually seen with one – e.g. in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor he is seen grinding meat or eating burgers almost the entire time – but is usually too cheap to pay for them. A recurring joke is Wimpy's attempts to con other patrons of the diner into buying him his lunch. Wimpy often tries to outwit fellow patrons with his convoluted logic. His famous line, which was first introduced to the cartoons in 1934's We Aim to Please, is "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". Wimpy had other frequently used lines in the original comic strip, usually invoked to someone or a group of people who are after him for some shenanigan he's pulled. On some occasions, Wimpy tries to placate the angry person or mob by saying "I'd like to invite you over to my house for a duck dinner." The angry person or persons are usually satisfied with that line and Wimpy moves away quickly to a safe distance and yells, "You bring the ducks!", the only one who doesn't grow angry at this is Popeye. Another such line was, "Jones is my name...I'm one of the Jones boys", an attempt to defuse a hostile situation with a false case for mistaken identity. To deflect an enemy's wrath, he would sometimes indicate a third party and say "Let's you and him fight," starting a brawl from which he quickly withdrew.

In popular culture

• Wimpy made two appearances in the animated sketch comedy program Robot Chicken.
  • In the episode "The Sack", Wimpy, voiced by Scott Adsit, is shown what the world would be like if he never existed, in a parody of It's a Wonderful Life. It turns out that the world would indeed be much better without him.
  • In the episode "Yancy the Yo-Yo Boy", a hamburger addicted Wimpy, voiced by Seth Green, faces violent retribution from Popeye after he is unable to "pay him Tuesday for a hamburger today". Wimpy then has to rely on sexual favors to save himself.
• Wimpy made an appearance in the Family Guy episode "McStroke", after Peter Griffin had a stroke eating hamburgers.
• Wimpy was featured in Alton Brown's Good Eats episode "A Grind is a Terrible Thing to Waste" (Season 2 Episode 8) which featured recipes for hamburgers and meatloaf.
• The character also appeared in a commercial for the Carl's Jr fast-food chain.
• In the Homestar Runner Halloween special "The House That Gave Sucky Treats", the secretly unlocked character Homsar dresses up as Wimpy, even uttering the phrase "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for some candy today!"

Notes

1. In Italian, Wimpy is known as "Poldo Sbaffini"; his surname is a reference to his scrounging habits. In Spanish, Wimpy is "Pilón", Spanish for "pestle", which may refer to the character's body shape. In Sweden Wimpy is called Frasse and, unlike in the American version where he eats hamburgers, he instead eats parisare, a similar Swedish dish.
2. Bill Mauldin, The Brass Ring, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1972

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External links

• Official Home Port of Popeye the Sailor and his Friends website

• Fictional con artists
• Popeye characters
• Comic book sidekicks