J. Wellington Wimpy
Encyclopedia
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 name was suggested by that of Wellington J. Reynolds, one of Segar's instructors at the Chicago Art Institute . His personality was based upon that of William Schuchert, the manager of the Chester Opera House
where Segar was first employed. "Windy Bill", as he was known, was a pleasant, friendly man, fond of tall tales
and hamburgers.
In a brief 1935 interview in The Daily Oklahoman
, H. Hillard Wimpee of Atlanta indicated that he worked with Segar at the Chicago Herald-Examiner in 1917. It became a custom in the office that whoever accepted an invitation for a hamburger would pay the bill. According to Wimpee, he wrote Segar in 1922 about Wimpy, "afraid of being connected with what [Segar] was doing with [the character]." He said Segar replied "'You haven't seen anything yet.'"
. He is also something of a scam artist
and, especially in the newspaper strip, can be notoriously underhanded at times.
Hamburger
s are Wimpy's all-time favorite dish
, and he is usually seen carrying or eating one or more at a time – e.g. in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor
he is seen grinding meat or eating burgers almost the entire time – however, he is usually too cheap to pay for them himself. A recurring joke involves Wimpy's attempts to con
other patrons of the diner
into buying his meal for him. His best-known catchphrase started in 1931 as "Cook me up a hamburger. I'll pay you Thursday." In 1932, this then became the famous "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate fiscal irresponsibility
and still appears in modern comedies such as The Drew Carey Show
and The Office
.
Wimpy had other frequently used lines in the original comic strip. On some occasions, Wimpy tries to placate someone by saying "I'd like to invite you over to my house for a duck
dinner." He then moves away quickly to a safe distance and yells, "You bring the ducks!" Another such line was, "Jones is my name...I'm one of the Jones boys" – an attempt to defuse a hostile situation with a 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.
He appeared in the Popeye film. He took advantage of Swee'Pea's power by asking him which horse will win the horse race, and since Swee'Pea can predict the true future, he figures out which horse will win. Popeye and Olive Oyl are very mad at him for doing so. He steals Swee'Pea and gives him to Bluto. Earlier on in the movie, he asked the waiter for a hamburger, saying that he himself is buying and the person next to him is paying. He is considered the worst customer because of his con artist ways. Olive forces him to take her to the Commodore's ship, where Bluto is keeping Swee'Pea hostage and double-crossing the Commodore a.k.a. Poopdeck Pappy. Wimpy also sang in most of the songs, using his famous line "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" (and the chorus repeats "He will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today").
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the long-running comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
, created by E. C. Segar
E. C. Segar
Elzie Crisler Segar was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of Popeye, a character who first appeared in 1929 in his comic strip Thimble Theatre. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was "SEE-gar". He commonly signed his work simply Segar or E...
and originally called Thimble Theatre, and in the Popeye cartoons
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
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
Fleischer Studios
Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...
, Wimpy became a more minor character; Dave Fleischer
Dave Fleischer
David "Dave" Fleischer was an American animator film director and film producer, best known as a co-owner of Fleischer Studios with his two older brothers Max Fleischer and Lou Fleischer...
said that the character in the Segar strip was "too intellectual" to be used in film cartoons. Wimpy did appear in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's 1980 live-action musical film
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
Popeye
Popeye (film)
Popeye is a 1980 live-action film adaptation directed by Robert Altman and adapted from E. C. Segar's Thimble Theatre aka Popeye comic strip.Marketed with the tagline, "The sailor man with the spinach can!", the film is a musical...
, played by veteran character actor Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley
-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
.
Inspiration
The character seems to be inspired by someone whom Segar encountered during his career. According to fellow cartoonist Bill MauldinBill Mauldin
William Henry "Bill" Mauldin was a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist from the United States...
, the name was suggested by that of Wellington J. Reynolds, one of Segar's instructors at the Chicago Art Institute . His personality was based upon that of William Schuchert, the manager of the Chester Opera House
Chester Opera House
Chester Opera House was a cinema and theatre which showed both movies and live stage performances in Chester, Illinois, USA. Elzie Segar, the creator of Popeye, worked there from the age of twelve....
where Segar was first employed. "Windy Bill", as he was known, was a pleasant, friendly man, fond of tall tales
Tall Tales
Tall Tales may refer to:* Tall Tales , 2004* Tall Tales , by American band The Hot Club of Cowtown* "Tall Tales" , an episode of the television series Supernatural-See also:...
and hamburgers.
In a brief 1935 interview in The Daily Oklahoman
The Oklahoman
The Oklahoman is the largest daily newspaper in Oklahoma and is the only daily newspaper that covers the entire Oklahoma City area.-Ownership:...
, H. Hillard Wimpee of Atlanta indicated that he worked with Segar at the Chicago Herald-Examiner in 1917. It became a custom in the office that whoever accepted an invitation for a hamburger would pay the bill. According to Wimpee, he wrote Segar in 1922 about Wimpy, "afraid of being connected with what [Segar] was doing with [the character]." He said Segar replied "'You haven't seen anything yet.'"
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 soft-spoken, very intelligent, and well educated, but also cowardly, very lazy, overly parsimonious and utterly gluttonousGluttony
Gluttony, derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, intoxicants or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste...
. He is also something of a scam artist
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
and, especially in the newspaper strip, can be notoriously underhanded at times.
Hamburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
s are Wimpy's all-time favorite dish
Dish (food)
A dish in gastronomy is a specific food preparation, a "distinct article or variety of food", with cooking finished, and ready to eat, or be served.A "dish" may be served on dishware, or may be eaten out of hand; but breads are generally not called "dishes"....
, and he is usually seen carrying or eating one or more at a time – e.g. in Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor is a two-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Popeye Color Feature series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on November 27, 1936 by Paramount Pictures. It was produced by Max Fleischer for Fleischer Studios, Inc. and directed by Dave...
he is seen grinding meat or eating burgers almost the entire time – however, he is usually too cheap to pay for them himself. A recurring joke involves Wimpy's attempts to con
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
other patrons of the diner
Diner
A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
into buying his meal for him. His best-known catchphrase started in 1931 as "Cook me up a hamburger. I'll pay you Thursday." In 1932, this then became the famous "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate fiscal irresponsibility
Debt
A debt is an obligation owed by one party to a second party, the creditor; usually this refers to assets granted by the creditor to the debtor, but the term can also be used metaphorically to cover moral obligations and other interactions not based on economic value.A debt is created when a...
and still appears in modern comedies such as The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show
The Drew Carey Show is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from 1995 to 2004. The show was set in Cleveland, Ohio, and revolved around the retail office and home life of "everyman" Drew Carey, a fictionalized version of the actor....
and The Office
The Office (US TV series)
The Office is an American comedy television series broadcast by NBC. An adaptation of the original BBC series of the same name, it depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company...
.
Wimpy had other frequently used lines in the original comic strip. On some occasions, Wimpy tries to placate someone by saying "I'd like to invite you over to my house for a duck
Duck (food)
Duck refers to the meat of several species of bird in the Anatidae family, found in both fresh and salt water. Duck is eaten in many cuisines around the world.-Types of ducks:The most common duck meat consumed in the United States is the Pekin duck...
dinner." He then moves away quickly to a safe distance and yells, "You bring the ducks!" Another such line was, "Jones is my name...I'm one of the Jones boys" – an attempt to defuse a hostile situation with a mistaken identity
Mistaken identity
Mistaken identity is a defense in criminal law which claims the actual innocence of the criminal defendant, and attempts to undermine evidence of guilt by asserting that any eyewitness to the crime incorrectly thought that they saw the defendant, when in fact the person seen by the witness was...
. 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.
He appeared in the Popeye film. He took advantage of Swee'Pea's power by asking him which horse will win the horse race, and since Swee'Pea can predict the true future, he figures out which horse will win. Popeye and Olive Oyl are very mad at him for doing so. He steals Swee'Pea and gives him to Bluto. Earlier on in the movie, he asked the waiter for a hamburger, saying that he himself is buying and the person next to him is paying. He is considered the worst customer because of his con artist ways. Olive forces him to take her to the Commodore's ship, where Bluto is keeping Swee'Pea hostage and double-crossing the Commodore a.k.a. Poopdeck Pappy. Wimpy also sang in most of the songs, using his famous line "I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" (and the chorus repeats "He will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today").
In popular culture
- During World War II, "Wimpy", in reference to the character, was the nickname given to the Vickers WellingtonVickers WellingtonThe Vickers Wellington was a British twin-engine, long range medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs' Chief Designer, R. K. Pierson. It was widely used as a night bomber in the early years of the Second World War, before being displaced as a...
bomber. Wimpy is also the inspiration and name of the large chain of UK Wimpy hamburger restaurants which was founded in 1954 and has maintained operations overseas since 1967. Their website states, "The name Wimpy is believed to have come from Popeye’s friend J Wellington Wimpy who loved hamburgers as much as Popeye loved spinach." - Wimpy made a cameo appearance (as an in-gag to both his facial features; in the context of beef related heart diseaseHeart diseaseHeart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
and affinity for hamburgers) in the Family GuyFamily GuyFamily Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...
episode "McStrokeMcStroke"McStroke" is the eighth episode of season six of the FOX animated series Family Guy, which originally aired on January 13, 2008. The title is a play on McDonald's terminology of putting "Mc" in front of common words...
" - Wimpy has appeared in two episodes of the Adult SwimAdult SwimAdult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
animated series Robot ChickenRobot ChickenRobot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show... - In the Good EatsGood EatsGood Eats is a television cooking show created and hosted by Alton Brown which airs in North America on Food Network. Likened to television science educators Mr. Wizard and Bill Nye, Brown explores the science and technique behind the cooking, the history of different foods, and the advantages of...
second season episode "Daily Grind" (aka "A Grind is a Terrible Thing to Waste"), Alton BrownAlton BrownAlton Crawford Brown is an American television personality, author, actor, and cinematographer. He is the creator and host of the Food Network television show Good Eats and the mini-series Feasting on Asphalt and Feasting on Waves, and he is the host and main commentator on Iron Chef America...
prepares the "perfect burger" (as well as meatloaf & meatballs) for a character named "J. Wellington Whimpy" (purposely misspelled, but looking mostly like the version of Wimpy played by Paul Dooley in the Popeye film) played by then cast regular Steve Rooney. - Topper McNabb, a NPC in World of Warcraft walks around Stormwind occasionally saying the line "I will gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today."
- A character in the Looney TunesLooney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
short "Shake Your Powder Puff" used the line, "Jones is the name- I'm one of the Jones boys!" in attempt to gain access to a theater. - In the final Pooch the PupPooch the PupPooch the Pup is an anthromorphic dog created by Walter Lantz Productions during the black-and-white era of the studio's history. The character only appeared in thirteen cartoons.-Biography:In 1931, Walter Lantz was encountering slight financial troubles...
cartoon called She Done Him Right, a dog character looking like Wimpy is seen playing a slot machine.