Well, the hell with Wimpy.
What kind of name is Wimpy anyway?
It’s at the end of I Don’t Scare (1956) - most of the cartoon is Bluto making it look to Olive as if Popeye is unlucky when he discovers that she is superstitious. At the end, Popeye tells her that superstitions are bunk - just as they pass on opposite sides of a telephone pole; he then runs back around the pole, saying “Bread and butter!”, only to turn red-faced as Olive laughs at him.
I don’t remember that one, but I do remember a Warner Brothers cartoon from around that time that had two trains on parallel tracks going in opposite directions, with a pole between the tracks, and the trains say, “bread and butter bread and butter bread and butter bread and butter…”
In fact, these are the only two times I can remember hearing the phrase used in that sense.
Beats the hell out of Castor Oil.
Not sure about “blow the man down”, but could “blow me down” be a reference to the boilers on a steamship?
One of the reasons to blow down a boiler is to rapidly reduce pressure in an emergency, to quite literally “let off some steam”.
That’s J. Wellington Wimpy to you. Wikipedia says Segar named him after a former coworker whose last name was Whimpee.
Oyl. And Olive’s original boyfriend was named Ham Gravy. Segar made the mistake of starting his cartoon when he was hungry.
Thanks for fighting ignorance, Tom Tildrum! 
Ummm, so just who are Sweet Pea’s parents?
Oh, and Popeye’s nephews, Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye. What are they, quadruplets?
By the way, total ripoffs of Huey, Louie, and Dewey.
It appears in The Twilight Zone episode, *Nick of Time*to establish William Shatner’s character as a superstitious man.
I learned about that superstition from a novel or TV show, but I remember one person saying “bread and butter” and the response was “slice 'em and spread 'em”.
The zoo cartoon is what popped into my head as well while reading the OP.
The train one is the one I always think of.
I thought that Sweetpea was Popeye’s nephew. :dubious:
On edit: In the comics, Swee’Pea is a baby found on Popeye’s doorstep (actually delivered to him in a box) in a July 24, 1933 strip. Popeye adopts and raises him as his son, or, as he puts it “boy-kid”.
On edit edit: link
Was there ever an X-rated version where Popeye took spinach with him to bed?
Cause it could work.
If David Lynch directed.
Don’t mess with Popeye, man.
Just don’t. He will kick your ass.
actually there’s a illustrated history of the strip (and biography of segar himself) that was written about 1985 or 6 by the guy who was segar’s assistant and who took over the strip after he died
But in the strip sweetpeas mother showed up and they had a month long battle over who was keeping him (it was a satirical play on the depression eras stereotype of unwed mother with a baby that was in the movies and radio shows) Popeye won but shed show up now and again when segar wanted to have some drama in the strip
Also popeyes nephews were a famous studios (the worst place ever for cartoons ) invention after their stories became stale…and not considered canon…
Or olive oil? 
FUN FACT: During WWII, RAF airmen called their Wellington bombers “Wimpys” in (so I’m told) *homage *to Popeye’s friend.
Whimpy was based on more than one person … a conman that was supposed ot be the smartest man he knew and always parted people from their money with fast talking…how he talked was based on a boxing ref that would mumble the fighters names but would say his loud and clear …
in fact he wrote that him and segar could never work out a strip where popeye would win against him and when he complains about it one day segar says" well maybe hes always supposed to win"
One I happened to hear on Beavis and Butt-head:
Q. What happened when Napoleon went to Mount Olive?
A. Popeye got pissed.
A very old thread about this and other obscure cartoon details. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=146547&page=3