Favorite Popeye Mumble

[cartoonfan4ever]

What is your favorite Popeye mumble/ad-lib. It can be any character from a Popeye cartoon.

I like this one from Goonland.

Popeye while disguising himself as a Goon- "Hair today, Goon tomorrow. Yekyekyek."


Here's another one, but I don't know what cartoon it's from.

Popeye and Olive are at the ice skating rink getting the ice skates:

Popeye- "What foot are you?"
Olive- "I take a 3 and a half but an 8 feels so good."
Popeye- "better get 12's huh."

[zavkram]

Here's another one, but I don't know what cartoon it's from.

Popeye and Olive are at the ice skating rink getting the ice skates:

Popeye- "What foot are you?"
Olive- "I take a 3 and a half but an 8 feels so good."
Popeye- "better get 12's huh."

That's from A Date To Skate (1938), which takes place at a roller skating rink.

My favorite is from Customers Wanted (1938), at the beginning when Popeye and Bluto are trying to lure Wimpy into their respective arcades:

Bluto (or was it Popeye?): "'Ya get six pennies for a nickel over here!"

Wimpy: "Did someone say eight?"

Popeye (sotto voce): "Not me, brother!"

My second favorite is from Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (1937), when Popeye becomes a "bowling ball" and knocks over ten of the 40 thieves:

"How does that strike 'ya?"

[larriva9/11]

Should we not forget that line in Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, "I've never made love in Technicolor before"?

[Matt the Y]

"Hey, hey, HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY!!!!!..... I musta been dreamin' about hittin' the hey!" - from "The Fly's Last Flight" [1949]

"Someone up there's tryin' to ROCK me to sleep" - from "Goonland" [1938]

"Am I doing all right, Popeye?"
"You couldn't do better!" - from "Wimmen Hadn't Oughta Drive" [1940]

"Napkin..... Someone's gonna be 'napkin' in a minute" - from "Kickin' the Conga Round" [1942]

"Ooh, is my face red! Durn crows! I'll ketchup with them!" - from "I'll Never Crow Again" [1941]

"Popeye, why don't women run for President?"
"'Cuz they're too busy runnin' for husbands!" - from "Olive Oyl for President" [1948]

[after clamping a giant safety pin onto the sheik making him look like a baby] "How d'ya like that, pin-up boy?" - from "A Wolf in Sheik's Clothing" [1948]

[when Swee'pea crawls into the gorilla's cage at the zoo] "Swee'pea, get away from that chimp-monk!" - from "Baby Wants Spinach" [1950]

[Matthew Hunter]

At one point in "Popeye Meets Ali Baba", Popeye winds up robbing Abul Hassan (Bluto) of his pants for a moment, and says:

"Abul Hassan got 'em anymore!"

[Barb Herholzer]

My favorite is from GOONLAND:

"Hey Stupid, do you know where my Pappy is hid?" :sailor:

[cartoonfan4ever]

This one is from Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves when Popeye and Abul Hassan first met.

Popeye- Take me home for a dollar ninety-eight.
Hassan- Hmmm. 2 cents.

[Greg Method]

Pretty much all of Popeye's dialogue in "Learn Polikeness."

My favorite non-Popeye adlib, though, is Bluto's "Get in there, ya monkey!" when swatting at the goat in "Morning, Noon, and Nightclub."

[Vdubdavid]

From "Protek the Weakerist": "Ya see Pekingnese is weak in the knees and I don't like these, ya see?"

From "The Jeep" as said Jeep starts looking for Swee' Pea: "He smells scents with his sense of smell!"

[nickramer]

This is my favorite ad-lib:

"Well, so long! Ooh, You're so long it'll take too long for you to get out of here, fella!"- "Leave Well Enough Along" (1939)

[Matt the Y]

This is my favorite ad-lib:

"Well, so long! Ooh, You're so long it'll take too long for you to get out of here, fella!"- "Leave Well Enough Along" (1939)

Perchance, was Popeye talking to a dachshund during this scene?

[nickramer]

Perchance, was Popeye talking to a dachshund during this scene?
Yes, he did.

[Ray Pointer]

In ALI BABA, Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy are trudging through the dessert sand. Popeye says, "I wish there was a boardwalk on this beach. I could make me a SAND-wich if I only had a WITCH!":sailor:

[gdX]

Same scene, to Wimpy: "That's one of those invisible garages that ya can't see..."

[cpdavison]

From BIG CHIEF UGH-A-MUGH-UGH (or whatever its called):

"Who made yer bows, an amateur?"

Brilliant, sez I!

Craig D.

[Ray Pointer]

Same scene, to Wimpy: "That's one of those invisible garages that ya can't see..."

That's misquoted. The line is "That's one of those invisible MIRAGES that ya can't see." The gag is ironic like saying "A verbal contract ain't worth the paper it's written on."

[Matt the Y]

While this thread is still going on, I must say that Bluto (the heel) also had his share of pretty good mumbles as well, such as.....

"Well, I got rid of the squirt. Now for the skirt....." - from "Shape Ahoy" [1945]

"A dame's like a bottle of milk. If she hangs around long enough, she turns sour!" - from "Shape Ahoy"

"I have such rotten good luck!" - from "For Better or Nurse" [1945]

"Now who do I know that can write?" - from "Seein' Red, White, 'n' Blue" [1943]

"Gentlemen, eh? Must be a character part!" - from "It's the Natural Thing to Do" [1939]

"Ooohhh, how ghastly stupid of me!" - from "Natural Thing to Do"

"Hey, I hear conversin' is comin' back!" - from "Natural Thing to Do"

"Help! Help! I'm drowning!" - from "Natural Thing to Do" (while burning at the end of Popeye's pipe)

"Oh no! You ain't eatin' no spinach in THIS picture!" - from "Taxi Turvy" [1954]

"Now THERE'S a lovely date for ya!" - from "Fright to the Finish" [1954; while handing Popeye the marionette skeleton he used to scare Olive with. Bluto also does a great faux-Jack Mercer-Popeye voice impersonation in this one; "Here's yer drink o' water, Olive!"]

[The Budman]

From Pre-Hysterical Man:

Olive has fallen into The Valley That Time Forgot as Popeye was attempting to take her picture. A caveman rescues her and begins to drag her back to his cave for some loving. Popeye, seeing what's goiung on says, "Wow! I hope Olive ain't overexposed!"

[Ray Pointer]

While this thread is still going on, I must say that Bluto (the heel) also had his share of pretty good mumbles as well, such as.....

"Well, I got rid of the squirt. Now for the skirt....." - from "Shape Ahoy" [1945]

"A dame's like a bottle of milk. If she hangs around long enough, she turns sour!" - from "Shape Ahoy"

"I have such rotten good luck!" - from "For Better or Nurse" [1945]

"Now who do I know that can write?" - from "Seein' Red, White, 'n' Blue" [1943]

"Gentlemen, eh? Must be a character part!" - from "It's the Natural Thing to Do" [1939]

"Ooohhh, how ghastly stupid of me!" - from "Natural Thing to Do"

"Hey, I hear conversin' is comin' back!" - from "Natural Thing to Do"

"Help! Help! I'm drowning!" - from "Natural Thing to Do" (while burning at the end of Popeye's pipe)

"Oh no! You ain't eatin' no spinach in THIS picture!" - from "Taxi Turvy" [1954]

"Now THERE'S a lovely date for ya!" - from "Fright to the Finish" [1954; while handing Popeye the marionette skeleton he used to scare Olive with. Bluto also does a great faux-Jack Mercer-Popeye voice impersonation in this one; "Here's yer drink o' water, Olive!"]

None of these lines are "mumbled." They are articulated with animated lip action and staged as conscious dialog gags. The reference to "mumbled" remarks is in the form of what I term "Audible Thought Balloons" in that we hear remarks that the character thinks to him/herself, but does not speak aloud. The examples cited are all spoken dialog, not thoughts within the character alone.

[cartoonfan4ever]

None of these lines are "mumbled." They are articulated with animated lip action and staged as conscious dialog gags. The reference to "mumbled" remarks is in the form of what I term "Audible Thought Balloons" in that we hear remarks that the character thinks to him/herself, but does not speak aloud. The examples cited are all spoken dialog, not thoughts within the character alone.

Exactly. I was asking for the ad-libs that the actors put in, where there were no written dialog in the script.

[Mibbitmaker]

My most favorite one, "Pekingese is weak in the knees..." is already taken, but I love a couple more

"Searchay la Frame" (not sure how to spell it), as Popeye looks under a picture in "The Jeep"

Bluto gets a good one in: "... I guess that's how you spell it", while signing his name in place of Olive's on the gold mine sign in "Stealin' Ain't Honest".

I love in "Cops is Always Right" how, while Popeye is very deferential to the policeman in the scripted parts (even putting himself in jail for an accident!), the adlibs are quite irreverent - like getting one of the tickets and mumbling, "Can you spare it, mm?"

Though it's hard to hear, Popeye reacts to the photo of Bluto smugly "mm-hmm"ing him (gravelly-sounding and different-voiced since they'd lost Gus Wicke by then) in "I Yam Love Sick" with, "Sounds like he's got a cold" (I think I quoted it right).

Popeye also calls the aforementioned "Big Chief Ugh-A-Mugh-Ugh" "Big Cheese Ugly-Mug", which I think I remember being an adlib as well.

[Ray Pointer]

My most favorite one, "Pekingese is weak in the knees..." is already taken, but I love a couple more

"Searchay la Frame" (not sure how to spell it), as Popeye looks under a picture in "The Jeep".

That's a play on the literary device in mysteries, taken from the French, 'Searche' la femme." It's a sort of denoument, or climax in a story, literally translated as seeking or searching for the woman.

Here's another amusing aside remark that is a corruption of French from LEARN POLIKENESS: Professor Bluteau: "Entre' " Popeye: "Entre'? (or on tray), I already et, young fella." Also Blutea: "Apre's-vous?" Popeye: "I don't get it, Apple Stew?"

[gdX]

That's misquoted. The line is "That's one of those invisible MIRAGES that ya can't see." The gag is ironic like saying "A verbal contract ain't worth the paper it's written on."Give it another spin.

The ironic twist is indeed apparent, but Popeye is clearly mis-pronouncing "mirages" as "garages"... as he is prone to do:

"With all due respect to the great mousetrap"

:sailor:

[shoshani]

In ALI BABA, Popeye, Olive, and Wimpy are trudging through the dessert sand. Popeye says, "I wish there was a boardwalk on this beach. I could make me a SAND-wich if I only had a WITCH!":sailor:

You left part of it out, Ray! :sylvester

Popeye actually says "There's so much sand I could make a sand-wich if I had a witch!".

Jack Mercer really knew how to strech the puns and double them back over on top of themselves....

[shoshani]

One of my favorites, and I don't know whether it was ad-libbed or not but I'm guessing that it was, is a scene in "Hold The Wire" in which Popeye and Bluto are beating the stuffings out of each other atop telephone wires.

To the tune of "Did You Ever See A Dream Walking", Bluto sings "Did you ever see a guy falling?", to which Popeye responds in the same key, "Well, YOU will!".

[J Lee]

I just want to throw one in from "Dizzy Divers" because it's the only (semi-) funny ad-lib William Costello ever came up with -- after Bluto traps him inside the giant clam, Popeye complains, "I never liked oyskers on the half-shell!"

(Costello was ad-libbing under his breath just like Mercer in most of the early Popeyes, but never did anything but describe the action on screen or talk about how great his character was. The only other funny mumble was his angrily mimicing Wimpy's "She'll awaken when she falls" like after he flips his chair in "A Dream Walking". But it's the reading of the line that makes it funny, not the play on words like with the later Popeye ad-libs.)

[Noisejunkie]

One of my favorites, and I don't know whether it was ad-libbed or not but I'm guessing that it was, is a scene in "Hold The Wire" in which Popeye and Bluto are beating the stuffings out of each other atop telephone wires.

To the tune of "Did You Ever See A Dream Walking", Bluto sings "Did you ever see a guy falling?", to which Popeye responds in the same key, "Well, YOU will!".

That's my favorite, too!

[jrinspace]

I thought someone would have posted my favorite Popeye mumble before me by now. It is the very risque' mumble from 1936's "Never Kick a Woman" where Popeye takes Olive to the gym so she can learn to defend herself and a Mae West type woman working out there flirts with Popeye.

While she is rubbing up against Popeye and running her fingers through his hair, she says the Mae West standard line "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?"

To which Popeye mumbles "I'm practically there!":eek: And this is 1936 after the Haye's act!! How did that get by the censors? LOL

[Mac]

My favourite is when Popeye is hiding Olive's sissy dawg in "Proteck the Weakerist" and is making small-talk with Bluto.

Popeye: "Such large weather we're having"
Bluto: "Oh enormous, enormous"