Wimpy appears in Robert Altman's 1980 live-action musical film Popeye, played by Paul Dooley.

Wimpy's personality was based upon that of William Schuchert, the manager of the Chester Opera House where Segar was first employed.

According to fellow cartoonist Bill Mauldin, the name was suggested by that of Wellington J. Reynolds, one of Segar's instructors at the Chicago Art Institute.

[7] In a brief 1935 interview in The Daily Oklahoman, H. Hillard Wimpee of Atlanta indicated that he was connected to the character, having worked with Segar at the Chicago Herald-Examiner in 1917.

A recurring joke involves Wimpy's attempts to con other patrons of the diner owned by Rough House into buying his meal for him.

This phrase is now commonly used to illustrate financial irresponsibility[10][11][12] and still appears in modern comedies such as The Drew Carey Show and The Office.

The initial part of the phrase was the title of Episode 6 of the fourth season of Cheers "I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday."

In Robert Altman's 1980 live-action musical film Popeye, where Wimpy was played by veteran character actor Paul Dooley, one of Harry Nilsson's original songs, "Everything Is Food", featured Dooley singing the catch-phrase, as he took a hamburger, as "I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."