The possibility is suggested that cardiac aneurysms are formed when an infarcted region of the ventricular wall becomes elastically unstable and "blows out". The consequence of such a blowout could be a large saccular aneurysm or even cardiac rupture. We use a nonlinear stress-strain relation capable of describing both the passive and active myocardial wall to examine this possibility in terms of large-deformation membrane theory. Ventricular infarcts made of a material having physical properties like rubber would be expected to blow out, but those made of passive myocardium would not.