J. Wellington Wimpy
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J. Wellington Wimpy, or just Wimpy, is one of the characters in the long-running comic strip Thimble Theater, and in the Popeye cartoons based upon the strip.
Wimpy was created by newspaper cartoonist Elzie Crisler Segar. He became one of the dominant characters in the newspaper strips. When "Popeye" was adapted as an animated cartoon series by Fleischer Studios, Wimpy was made a more minor character; Dave Fleischer said that the character in the Segar comic strips was "too intellectual" to be used in film cartoons. The character was soft-spoken and generally cowardly, or a "wimp", hence his name. According to fellow cartoonist, Bill Mauldin, Wimpy took his name from one of Segar's instructors at the Chicago Art Institute (Wellington J. Reynolds)[1].
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[edit] History
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. Wimpy is also something of a scam artist and (especially in the newspaper cartoons) can be shockingly underhanded at times.
Wimpy loves to eat hamburgers, and is usually seen with one (e.g. in "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor," where he eats 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 the 1934 cartoon We Aim to Please, is "I'll 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 falsified 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.
[edit] Other Media
- 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, in which 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 ends up beating beaten severely but saves himself by offering to fellate Popeye. Immediately after the incident Wimpy finds that many are willing to give him money.
- 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.
- In the Homestar Runner Halloween special "The House That Gave Sucky Treats", the character Homsar dresses up as Wimpy, even going as far as to say "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for some candy today!"
- In The Office, an American adaptation of an English television show, the character, Michael, played by Steve Carell, says the line, "I'd gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today," to an African American co-worker, Stanley.
- In the game World of Warcraft there is an NPC that says the line: I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
[edit] Miscellany
- During the Second World War the RAF Wellington bomber was nicknamed the "Wimpy".
- There is a chain of "Wimpy" hamburger restaurants which are named after him, originally launched in the United Kingdom in 1954 by J. Lyons and Co.
- In the 1980 film directed by Robert Altman, Wimpy is played by character actor Paul Dooley.
- In the late 1990s, there was a popular t-shirt trend with a picture of J Wellington Wimpy fighting Jenna Marie Kisby.
- The Italian full name for this character is "Poldo Sbaffini"; his 'surname' refers to his scrounging habits.
- Wimpy sometimes goes by the nickname "Wimpy Burgleton".
- The name of Wimpy in Latin America and Spain is "Pilón" (Pestle), which may refer the character's body shape. In Mexican comics he often played second fiddle to Professor O. G. Watasnozzle in short skits in which Watasnozzle would try to convince him to be the test subject for his latest invention.
- A Detroit tavern called "Wimpy's" is located at the corner of East Warren Avenue and Outer Drive. The eatery contains caricatures and other likenesses of the popular character.
- The Swedish Wimpy is called Frasse and unlike the American version who eats hamburgers, he eats parisare (a Swedish dish similar to hamburgers) instead because when Popeye was translated into Swedish in the 40's, nobody knew what a hamburger was but parisare was well-known. Another fun fact is that parisare can be ordered at Frasses, a Swedish hamburger chain and Frasse is the Swedish name for Wimpy.
- San Francisco band, The Fabulous Hedgehogs, released an ode to J. Wellington Wimpy, "The Wimp," on their eponymous, 1994 release, The Fabulous Hedgehogs.
- Long Lake, MN restaurant "The Red Rooster" sports a colored metal cutout of Wimpy hanging from the sign on the front of its building.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bill Mauldin, The Brass Ring, New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1972
[edit] External links
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