The world's most famous sailor-man may be tooting more than just spinach in his pipe.

Is the spinach which gives Popeye his super-strength really a metaphor for another magical herb? Have children around the world been adoring a hero who is really a heavy consumer of the forbidden weed – marijuana?

The evidence is circumstantial, but it is there, and when added together it presents a compelling picture that, for many readers at least, Popeye's strength-giving spinach is meant as a clear metaphor for the miraculous powers of marijuana.

At first there was no explanation for Popeye's amazing strength. But within a few years Popeye's reliance on spinach was entrenched in the strip, and the basis of some ongoing jokes. By the time of the animated cartoons the spinach had become an essential part of every plot, with Popeye's consumption of the magic herb signaling a swift end to his foes.

Spinach = Marijuana

What evidence is there that Popeye is actually a stoner?

During the 1920s and '30s, the era when Popeye was created, "spinach" was a very common code word for marijuana. One classic example is "The Spinach Song," recorded in 1938 by the popular jazz band Julia Lee and Her Boyfriends. Performed for years in clubs thick with cannabis smoke, along with other Julia Lee hits like "Sweet Marijuana," the popular song used spinach as an obvious metaphor for pot.

In addition, anti-marijuana propaganda of the time claimed that marijuana use induced super-strength. Overblown media reports proclaimed that pot smokers became extraordinarily strong, and even immune to bullets. So tying in Popeye's mighty strength with his sucking back some spinach would have seemed like an obvious cannabis connection at the time.

Further, as a "sailor-man," Popeye would be expected to be familiar with exotic herbs from distant locales. Indeed, sailors were among the first to introduce marijuana to American culture, bringing the herb back with them from their voyages overseas.

As the Popeye character was re-interpreted by others in print, animation and film, other indicators of a marijuana subtext have continued to pop up.

For example, in many of the animated Popeye cartoons from the 1960s, Popeye is explicitly shown sucking the power-giving spinach through his pipe.

Further, in the comics and cartoons made during the '60s, Popeye had a dog named Birdseed. Surely the writers who named Popeye's dog during this "flower power" era were aware that cannabis was in fact America's number one source of birdseed until it was banned?
Another slightly different drug reference occurs in the 1954 cartoon, Greek Mirthology. In the cartoon, Popeye tells his nephews the story of his ancestor, Hercules. Hercules, who looks just like Popeye, is shown sniffing white garlic to gain his super strength. By the end of the cartoon Hercules has discovered spinach and switches over to it. Is this a metaphor for the benefits of cannabis over cocaine or snuff?

Another animated film shows Popeye carefully tending a crop of spinach plants reminiscent of a cannabis patch. He carefully takes cuttings, dips them into rooting gel and plants them in his outdoor garden. He even gives each plant a special feeding mix from a baby bottle. Pot growers worldwide would recognize the unique way that Popeye cares for his sacred crop.

Pure Bolivian Spinach

The only Popeye strip to ever explicitly refer to the pot/spinach connection was published in the 1980s by illustrator Bobby London. The comic showed Popeye and Wimpy picking up a load of "pure Bolivian spinach."

Popeye Mythology
Whether Popeye 's many pot references are intentional or not, some see amazing depths and layers of meaning within the Popeye saga

While this is likely reading far more into the strip than any of its creators ever intended, it is an excellent example of the iconic status that Popeye has achieved among some quarters of the cannabis community.


Do you remember

lets see, I remember Saturday mornings, sitting in front of the black and white tv that barely came in with it's rabbit ears for an antenna, oh no I might be wrong, it might of been a coat hanger we used for to get a signal..lol

I remember my dad who looked a lot like Popeye in some ways,, I remember Dad talking like the sailor and Dad even had that corn cob pipe hanging out of his mouth.

I remember the Sea Hag, Alice the Goon, Brutis, Wimpy and Olive Oil....If you can remember more chime right in...

I am probably telling my age now, I would like to say the old shows I remember had to of been repeats..lol

I wonder if Dad had known Popeye was smoking the dreaded weed if Dad would of talked and smoked like the sailor,,, Who knows,, maybe Dad was smoking the Pure Bolivian Spinach

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And, Sweetpea.

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Charlie

Don't forget Pappy, Swea’ Pea (where did he come from?) and the mystical Jeep. You say Brutis, I say Bluto...

Oh yeah, didn't Popeye have 4 nephews?? YES!! Pip-Eye, Pup-Eye, Poop-Eye, and Peep-Eye. It was Hell trying to get them to sleep...

I remember a vagabond looking feller, maybe a little hunchbacked, trench coat and a long scraggly wire like beard. Olive Oil ditched Popeye & Bluto for him in an episode. Don't know if he was a regular though.

lol you saying popeye was a stoner?
hahah I got an idea...

watch a Popeye cartoon on mute while your listening to "Puff the magic Dragon"

LMAO... hahahahaha

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Spank You,
JohnnyBoy928
I ❤ 'The Pot'

lol Ya it was Bluto I guess,, so many years ago you know and to much spinach in the pipe lol

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Man,I love the old cartoons. Popeye was always good for a grin. One afternoon me and my buddy were sitting on the couch hitting the bong, watching the Flintstones with the volume off , Radio on.The lil majic guy Kazoo, I think his name was poped on the screen and someone on the radio said"hey man,What's happening" We were all stoned and laughin. After a couple of seconds, we started looking at my cat Patches and laughing histericaly.This freaked the cat out..She wouldnt have anything to do with us for months. It was comical.
Woody woodpecker was a good cartoon. One Day woody had a game of golf going and found himself playing thru Wally Walrus's Tree house. Wally was the greenskeeper. Wally pointed out the list of rules to the unruly woodpecker.
The last rule on the list said "No Opium Smoking"
Memories
Good post Deb