I saw this on Twitter today and thought it was hilarious and oddly poignant, from a modern political perspective.
In the panels, Popeye asks Rough House where J. Wellington Wimpy was to which RH replied “I ain’t seen him and I don’t want to see him—he hasn’t been around today.” Popeye calls Wimpy “arful” before showing pity for him, although RH didn’t share the sentiment:
Well, I don’t. Why, say—that fellow would commit a crime for a hamburger.
We then spot Wimpy taking out razor of some kind as he starts cutting through a barred window into a jail where incarcerated people are eating from a plate full of hamburgers. He sits down to their disbelief and says:
Ah, good evening, gentlemen. Pleasant weather, isnt it, we’re having?
Wimpy literally broke into jail, not to free the people incarcerated there, but to get some of his favourite delicacies, thus breaking the law that could have extended his voluntary visit. It reminded me of how we have the power to abolish jails or and attempt to dismantle the system behind it all but only show glimpses of that for moments that benefit us (i.e. how I’ve seen a lot of performative activism since last year’s BLM protests)
I’m probably reaching but so was Wimpy—behind bars, for another hamburger.
(via Popeye Otaku on Twitter)