Where To Watch
Fans were furious when Popeye and Olive Oyl got married
Speak now or forever hold your spinach!
Normally, when characters stuck in a will-they-won't-they relationship finally get together, fans rejoice. But in 1999, when the special comic book The Wedding of Popeye and Olive Oyl came out, many fans were upset.
After meeting in a comic strip in 1929, Popeye and Olive Oyl came close to getting married several times. In the cartoons, they nearly marry many, but Bluto sabotages their wedding in "Nearlyweds". Later, in "Bride and Gloom", Olive Oyl self-sabotages the relationship after having a nightmare about marrying Popeye. Over and over, they became engaged and unengaged as part of the never-ending love triangle between Popeye, Olive, and Bluto. And that is where fans' problem with the marriage of Popeye and Olive lies.
The El Paso Times interviewed members of the Official Popeye Fan Club after the wedding comic was announced, and fan club president, Mike Brooks, said, "We're not throwing any rice here in Chester. We know Popeye would never hitch up with Olive. It would destroy the love triangle...the wedding is a pure fantasy, a scheme, a disgrace."
Other fans pointed out that Popeye and Olive didn't necessarily need to get married because in the 1987 cartoon Popeye and Son, they are married with children. This made a whole wedding comic book feel slightly redundant.
Fans also felt that because this change was not introduced by, or with the blessing of, Popeye creator E.C. Segar, who passed away in 1938. A marriage of Popeye and Olive was a significant change that would impact the future of all comics and cartoons, and a change of this magnitude made without the creator felt like a step too far.
To appease the Popeye purists, King Features Syndicate was quick to address fan complaints by specifying that the wedding comic book was a one-shot fantasy that would not impact future comic strips or cartoons, and that Popeye would remain a perpetual bachelor in the series canon. Thank goodness for that, Brooks felt Popeye would be appalled at the concept, "As Popeye would say, 'the whole idea of me marryin' is disgustapatin'!".
