# Was the name/nickname "Popeye" in general use before the cartoon character?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-name-nickname-popeye-in-general-use-before-the-cartoon-character/349733>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 24, 2006, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-name-nickname-popeye-in-general-use-before-the-cartoon-character/349733 "2006-03-24T16:00:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-name-nickname-popeye-in-general-use-before-the-cartoon-character/349733/21 "2006-03-27T14:10:47Z")

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> [@Larry Mudd](#):
>
> _Fffft._ He’s a _sailor_. A manly man. He can be ugly, stupid, and have any number of moral failings, but he’s a heroic figure by default.
> 
> Look at the way that Ann Darrow fawns over Driscoll in the original _King Kong_. On their first meeting, he pops her in the jaw and tells her that he thinks women are a “damned nuisance,” and her reaction is to bat her eyelashes at him, adjust her posture to best show off her feminine pulchritude, and make it absolutely clear that it’s imperative that he have his way with her as soon as he can possibly fit it in. (Long before he’s given any opportunity to display his heroism.)
> 
> It’s a common archetype of the '20s and '30s – sailors are rough, rude, plug-ugly, unwashed, uneducated, and supernaturally virile and capable, which makes them very attractive figures.
> 
> _swoon_
> 
> I don’t get it, either.

The Peter Jackson remake, interestingly, has no tough-and-sexy-sailor character corresponding to Driscoll in the original. The character “Driscoll” is a geeky screenwriter. (How times have changed . . . and how screenwriters have grown less shameless . . .) But there is a gem of dialogue when Preston, the pretty-boy film star, says to Driscoll: “Look, in real life, heroes don’t look like me. Real-life heroes have pot bellies and bald heads and bad teeth.”

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-name-nickname-popeye-in-general-use-before-the-cartoon-character/349733/22 "2006-03-28T02:57:42Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Marmite.

And really, really **really** hot thai food. At least tonight.

**Elfbabe** , where’s the viscous lidocaine? For later.

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