Talk:Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

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Contents 1 profanity 2 Page combination 3 Removal 4 Bad physics 5 WB speed comparison 6 Debue 7 Roadrunner caught 8 New Road Runner Images 9 The Electric Company shorts 10 Wile E's voice on Tiny Toons 11 "The Whizzard of Ow"... 12 Who is Wile E. Coyote? 13 What is the 'E.' for? 14 Beep Beep

[edit] profanity

Whoever added the naughty words at the start of the article please stop doing so! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.211.194.194 (talk • contribs).

[edit] Page combination

"Wile E Coyote" and "Road Runner" and "Acme" were formerly pages in their own right. They were stubs and they duplicated information -- they each had 1-2 paragraphs in common explaining the cartoons. Plus they forced the reader wishing to learn about Road Runner to zip around pages like a lunatic.

IMO a single article with some substance to it is preferable to 3-4 stubs. Don't create links or pages for the characters unless this article threatens to become unreadably huge. -- Tarquin 16:27 Oct 11, 2002 (UTC)

[edit] Removal

Removed from article:

PS:

Wile E. Coyote almost certainly the major influence on Hanna-Barbera's Dick Dastardly. In "Wacky Races", Dastardly's schemes to stop the other Wacky Racers often look suspiciously similar - if not suspiciously identical! - to Coyote's Acme devices, while in "Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines" Dastardly and his dim-witted companions are out to catch a bird (albeit a flying bird) using ridiculously elaborate contraptions, which of course never succeed. Talk about imitation being the sincerest form of plagiarism!

This needs to be rewritten to be encyclopedic - all it is now is just an aside. --mav

BTW, I just found out that Mike Maltese, who wrote many of Jone's Road Runner cartoons is also listed as a writer on Wacky Races, although I'm not sure whether he actually wrote original material for the show or was just credited for the use of old Road Runner gags. (Example: Coyote/Dastardly lays a fake railroad track across the road and rings the crossing bell to stop the Road Runner/other Wacky Racers - but the moment he steps onto the track a real train appears and flattens him. I'm sure the diligent researcher can find lots of other examples, especially by watching Boomerang UK, which sneakily shows Wacky Races and Road Runner back to back!)) Lee M

[edit] Bad physics

There's no reason you can't climb up rocks that began falling after you. That's perfectly consistent with the laws of physics. Graft

So who the hell said a cartoon needs to be consistent with the laws of physics? Remember the Road Runner cartoon where a rubber band refused to snap back until the minute Coyote stuck his neck in it?? Lee M

No-one said that a cartoon needs to be consistent with the laws of physics. Graft was just mentioning one thing that happened to be consistent with the laws of physics. I don't know what it was in reply to, however; I can't find any other mention of climbing up rocks in the article or in this talk page. And I don't suppose you could sign your comments, could you? Type "~~~" or "~~~~" after them. It makes it easier to see what's going on when people are talking to each other... -- Oliver P. 13:35 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I'm reminded of a couple of things not mentioned here, but I'm not sure whether they are that important, or where to put them. Anyway, if I remember rightly, most of Wile E. Coyote's schemes would be introduced with him holding a blueprint diagram of what it supposed to happen, and his failure, if it results in a plummet, usually ends in a bird's eye view, and him hitting the ground, with a small white cloud of dust appearing. Silverfish 23:58, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

[edit] WB speed comparison

Anyone know who's faster: Road Runner or Speedy Gonzales? Timrollpickering 13:08, 21 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Debue

My impression is that Wile E. Coyote made his debut in a face-off with Bugs Bunny, "Operation Rabbit", set in the Southwest, and spoke, with very careful diction, a bit like Marvin the Martian... no? Wetman 23:32, 13 Jun 2004 (UTC).

Operation: Rabbit was made in 1952; the first Road Runner short, Fast and Furry-ous, was made in 1948. --b. Touch 15:23, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Roadrunner caught

I recently acted upon a childhood memory and obtained a copy of a DePatie-Freleng Road Runner short, "The Solid Tin Coyote" [1966?]. I had the distinct recollection that not only did the Coyote catch the Road Runner [albeit briefly], the Road Runner distinctly looked alarmed -- something I didn't remember from any other Road Runner/Coyote encounter. I was right -- the Road Runner does look frightened -- twice! First, when he sees the Coyote uncrate the giant robot Coyote, and, second, just before the robot makes a successful grab, having effortlessly chased the Road Runner down. Of course, the Coyote's triumphs are VERY short-lived, but I found myself wondering if there were any *other* instances in the cartoons where the Road Runner actually was portrayed as being concerned that the Coyote might actually succeed for once. User:Richard Sanders

[edit] New Road Runner Images

Just to let you guys know, I replaced the old Road Runner images from Matthew Hunter's Too Looney page with brand-new ones that I made myself from the new fully-restored prints. -- Pietro Shakarian 14:18, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] The Electric Company shorts

Here's one from my childhood that has barely been mentioned anywhere. If you know more about this, then please add any information you can.  :)

In the 1970s, Chuck Jones produced three Road Runner short films for the educational children's TV series The Electric Company. These short cartoons used the Coyote and the Road Runner to display words for children to read, but the cartoons themselves were a refreshing return to Jones' glory days.

There were at least three of those clips, if I remember right; two (?) of them had road signs and one used a traffic light.

Road sign #1: The Coyote saw signs with commands like "Slow," "Walk," "Skip," "Hop," "Crawl," and finally "Run." So after doing all those things, he took off and started running...when he saw the road coming to a dead end, blocked by a sign that said "Jump." He took a might leap and sailed over the sign...and, of course, over the cliff. Just before he fell over the cliff, he saw one more sign on the cliff's edge: "Fall!"

Here's where my memory gets sketchy. In one of these clips, he fell 10,000 feet (of course) and landed in a lake or muddle puddle or something, where a sign there said "Splash!" In *another* of these shorts, he fell 10,000 feet and landed on a trampoline, that had been placed there. A sign next to the trampoline said "Bounce." So he bounced...onto another trampoline. And another one. And another, and another, and another, finally leading over the horizon. Finally, we see the Road Runner, standing there and watching all this, with a bunch of signs grouped over his shoulder. (He was the one who had placed them there all along.) He turned and saw one final sign that said, "Beep." So he did. "Beep beep!"

The traffic light: Apparently this one use the idea of the Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf cartoons. Sam and Ralph punched the clock and went to work each day; likewise, this Road Runner cartoon "began" with the Coyote and the Road Runner coming to a "starting line" and preparing for the signal that would send them off to another day of chasing. The traffic light rang a bell and flashed "Ready"...the two characters hunched down..."Get Set,"...they tensed their muscles...and then finally a final bell "Ding" and the Coyote took off like a rocket. But the Road Runner did not; he was still standing there. He whistled to the Coyote and called him back. Coyote looked at the traffic light...and it wasn't saying "Go." Instead, the light started flashing a series of commands like "Laugh," "Cry," "Scream," etc. The Coyote followed all these commands, going faster and faster, getting into a rapid-fire series of facial expressions and sudden mood changes to go with them...till finally we see that the traffic light commands are being manually switched back and forth, by the Road Runner. --Modemac 02:35, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wile E's voice on Tiny Toons

Say, on the "Tiny Toon Adventures" episodes with Wile E. Coyote talking, did he sound like the voice Mel Blanc gave the coyote in the original cartoons? (though Mel Blanc was deceased by this time and I know Joe Alaskey did the voice) I mean, that upper-class English accent voice like on the Bugs Bunny cartoons and on "The Adventures of the Road-Runner." Did he have that type of voice on "Tiny Toons?"

[edit] "The Whizzard of Ow"...

...should definitely not re-direct here. It's a short film in its own right, just as much as any of the other Looney Tunes cartoons.

[edit] Who is Wile E. Coyote?

Is Wile E. Coyote an avatar of the 12th century Aztec ruler Nezahualcoyotl? Although the current Wikipedia article on him translates the name as "Starving Coyote", Prescott ("The Conquest of Mexico") translates it as "Wiley Fox".

Someone should look into this. -- ADM

No, noody should look into this.

I hate to say it, but this page has gone beyond the pale. I really doubt that Wile E. Coyote has anything to do with sisyphus. I'm sure that if I tried, I could claim that the roadrunner was based on Robin Goodfellow, but for Christ's sake guys! I mean, come on! Senorsquiid 01:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

• You're onto something. Wahkeenah 05:03, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What is the 'E.' for?

Does anyone know if an explanation or allusion to what it might stand for was ever given? Tyciol 22:06, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

No, its just there to reference 'wiley coyote', no real meaning behind it -Dark Dragon Flame 22:24, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

He has a middle name I was looking on here to see if it said it.

• His name is Wile E. as in "Wily". Any alleged middle name you may see anywhere on the internet, unless it's part of the WB canon, is bogus. Wahkeenah 17:20, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

• • This link [1] shows his middle name is Ethelbert. Jeopardy questions are heavily researched (and have thousands of dollars riding on them to boot), and is certainly well above half the crap that passes for references in Wikipedia articles. What's the objection to including it here? -R. fiend 19:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
    • I don't question that Jeopardy said it was. I question it being stated as fact in the opening sentence. I put it in the trivia section, where it belongs. Wahkeenah 19:26, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Now that the source has been found it has been added to the article while noting it was never intended to be canon, just a one-shot joke in a comic book story.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.211.194.194 (talk • contribs).

Why is there a footnote claiming the story "The Greatest of E's" is from an unknown issue? The Greatest of E's" appeared in issue 53 (cover dated September, 1975) of Gold Key Comics' officially licensed, comic book, Beep Beep the Road Runner although its writer, Mark Evanier, says he never intended it to be canon.[2] [References to it as a 1973 story are because it was written in 1973 but published in 1975; Gold Key in that era tended to maintain a backlog of stories far in advance of publication]. The article should be revised to reflect this!—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 208.251.92.64 (talk • contribs).

• Well, that explains, in overkill fashion, the origin of this "Ethelburt" stuff. Kudos for finding it. Wahkeenah 04:23, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

We still need a verifiable confirmation that it was issue #53. The standard source, Grand Comics Database, has no interior-contents listing yet for that issue, at its GCD page.--Tenebrae 03:59, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

The issue itself has been consulted, and there is no doubt it appeared in issue #53. Next we need to improve the comic book information in the article.

[edit] Beep Beep

For the record, since User:68.223.2.157 personalized it in his edit summary of 2:25 6 March 2007, that wasn't my edit. That data was inserted by User:207.230.140.240 at 16:09 5 March 2007. All I did was copy edit the language. --Tenebrae 03:51, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

You introduced incorrect information in your "copy edit." I had listed "volume 1, disc 3," which you changed to "Volume 3." Obviously, that's not the same thing. I know it was unintentional, but the reason for the edit needed to be pointed out since it was altering a purported fact. --207.230.140.240 21:32, 8 March 2007 (UTC)