In Popular Culture
- During World War II, "Wimpy", in reference to the character, was the nickname given to the Vickers Wellington bomber. Wimpy is also the inspiration and name of the large chain of Wimpy hamburger restaurants which was founded in Chicago in the 1930s and opened in the UK in 1954; it has maintained operations overseas since 1967. Their UK 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 disease and affinity for hamburgers) in the Family Guy episode "McStroke"
- Wimpy has appeared in two episodes of the Adult Swim animated series Robot Chicken, often using his "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday" line to buy hamburgers. Often it fails. Voiced by Scott Adsit.
- In the Good Eats second season episode "Daily Grind" (aka "A Grind is a Terrible Thing to Waste"), Alton Brown 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, an 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 Tunes 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 Pup cartoon called She Done Him Right, a dog character looking like Wimpy is seen playing a slot machine.
- Wimpy's famous catchphrase gives the name to the hamburger review website A Hamburger Today
Read more about this topic: J. Wellington Wimpy
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“And all the popular statesmen say
That purity built up the State
And after kept it from decay;
Admonish us to cling to that
And let all base ambition be,
For intellect would make us proud....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)