Looney Tunes Text Looney Tunes Logo

Table of Contents
Looney Tunes Banner

Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner Cartoon

In his book, Chuck Amuck, Chuck Jones explains some of the rules the writers and artists followed in making the Coyote-Road Runner series.

The Rules
Rule # Rule Description
1. The Road Runner cannot harm the coyote except by going "Beep-beep!"
2. No outside force can harm the coyote-only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products.
3. The coyote can stop any time - if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: "A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim."(George Santayana)
4. There may be no dialogue ever, except "beep-beep!" The coyote may, however, speak to the audience through wooden signs that he holds up.
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road - otherwise, logically, he would not be called "Road Runner".
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters - the southwest American desert.
7. All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, gravity should be made the coyote's greatest enemy.
9. The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

There was also a tenth and more unofficial rule:

10. The sympathy of the audience must lie with the coyote.

Road Runner Cartoon Image

The rules were followed with rare exceptions. Sometimes the episode is concluded with Wile E. being flattened by a truck (with the Road Runner grinning from the rear window). In the 1961 two-reel theatrical short The Adventures of the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote actually speaks dialogue as he lectures on how best to catch the Road Runner. In the 1979 made-for television short Freeze Frame, Wile E. Coyote chases the Road Runner up into a snowy mountainous region, where most of the short is spent. In the rare 2000 short Little Go Beep, they explain the fourth rule by showing a baby Wile E.'s father (voiced by Stan Freberg) telling him not to speak until he has caught the Road Runner. Chuck Jones directed Freeze Frame, and advised on Little Go Beep.